Unmasked
by Burning Shadow Wolf
Summary: Naruto has hidden his skills from everybody, instead choosing to wear the mask of the idiot. With the Chuunin Exams right around the corner, will he continue to wear the mask, or will his true self be revealed. Canon compliant, some characters will be OOC. Rating for language.
1. Chapter 1

**Hello everyone, I have finally returned, and with a new story line! To all of my loyal followers, I assure you, both Jinchuuriki Unleashed and Kumo's Black Fox will be updated in the near future. But enough of that, it's time we got down to the nitty gritty of my newest story. This one will by attempt at a more, believable, powerful Naruto story. Now I know I have said this before, but the Naruto of this story will not be godlike right off the bat. All of my other stories have been that way and I wanted to take a real shot at writing one that didn't have Naruto fighting kage-level opponents on even ground after the third chapter.**

**Also, this story, unlike my others, will follow along with canon, with obvious changes when appropriate. Now before we get to the story itself, I feel I must warn you readers that of a few of the characters will be noticeably OOC (Out of character, to those new to the site). I won't tell you who they are, but it should become obvious by the end of the chapter.**

**Now enough with all this boring stuff, you came here to read a story and won't keep you from it any longer.  
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**As always, I own nothing related to Naruto, it is the property of Masashi Kishimoto.**

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**Chapter 1- Decisions**

Naruto walked down the streets of Konoha, his usual exuberance and carefree aura replaced by an intense focus as he recounted the events of his run in with the three Sunagakure genin. His pinked haired team mate, Sakura, had been attempting to attack Konohamaru, the grandson of the Sandaime, for saying some rather unflattering things about her. He and Konohamaru's two friends, Moegi and Udon, had followed after them in the hopes of stopping Sakura before things got out of hand. Unfortunately, that's exactly what happened when Konohamaru, not paying any attention to where he was going, ran into the Suna genin Kankuro. Sakura's attempts at placating the foreign genin had fallen on deaf ears as Kankuro tried to punch Konohamaru, only for Naruto's other team mate, Sasuke, to stop him with a pebble.

'_That ego of his is really starting to give him a swelled head,' _thought Naruto with a small chuckle, startling several nearby villagers who had been shying away from the blond because of the unusually cold aura around him. _'Although, I need to start keeping a closer eye on him; ever since we returned from Nami his attitude has become even colder than before. He's so rattled at the thought that there are people our age out there who are actually stronger than him, that it won't be long before he does something stupid and becomes a risk to everyone around him.'_

Putting the topic of his unstable team mate aside, Naruto's thoughts turned to what the blonde Suna kunoichi had told them. Despite his enthusiastic outburst that he should enter the exams, he knew that the only way to enter was as a team, and they would only be permitted if their sensei nominated them to participate. And if he was honest with himself, team 7 was nowhere near ready to partake in the exams as they were.

Sakura was almost completely useless as a kunoichi, not deserving of her title as the top kunoichi of their graduating class. Sure the girl was book smart, but those smarts would only get her so far before her complete lack of battle prowess caught up to her and she found herself in a situation that she couldn't get out of. Sometimes he wondered if that was what Sakura was hoping for; that she would be some kind of damsel in distress and that Sasuke would come and save her as her knight in shining armor, not exactly the image a shinobi wants. She along with almost every other girl in their graduating class, whether they passed or not, was nothing more than an obsessed fan girl for the king of all emo's, Sasuke Uchiha.

Sasuke himself wasn't any better than Sakura, and in some ways he was even worse. While the young Uchiha did indeed have a great amount of skill for their age, the fact of the matter was, like Sakura, he didn't have the proper mindset to be a shinobi. Whereas Sakura was a useless fan girl, Sasuke was an unstable, spoiled emo with both a superiority and inferiority complex. Out of the three of them, Sasuke was the least ready for the Chuunin Exams, at least in terms of mentality. With the number of skilled ninja that were bound to be there, their new friends from Suna included, Sasuke's ego would take a beating at the thought of so many other people being on his skill level, or possibly even higher skill levels. Combine that with his inferiority complex…and you get a mixture that our young hero would rather not dwell on.

As for Naruto himself; in terms of skill, most would say that he shouldn't even be a genin because of his apparent lack of any skill besides spamming clones. His taijutsu was horrendous, with no set style at all, his genjutsu didn't even exist with his horrible chakra control and besides his Shadow Clone Jutsu, he had no ninjutsu at his disposal. While in terms of mental ability, it was surprising to many that he even knew how to care for himself. But that was the Naruto the public knew, the one he was more than willing to let everyone see, the one he created to protect himself.

_Hokage Tower- Meeting Chamber_

"You have all been assembled for only one reason," said the Sandaime Hokage to the gathered group of jounin and chuunin before him. Leaning back into his cushioned chair, the veteran shinobi looked over the assembled ninja. Most of them were wearing the dark green flak jacket that signified they were jounin's, but there was a small cluster of lighter green flak jackets amongst the group, the chuunin instructors from the Academy. Taking a long draw from his pipe, the aged kage blew out of small cloud of smoke, "It should be obvious by the members here."

"So it's already that time…" trailed Kakashi in his usual laid back manner. This was not the first time he had been present at one of these meetings, but it was the first time where he would be asked if any of his genin were ready to be nominated.

Behind him, Genma Shiranui, a special jounin and an elite bodyguard to the Hokage, was chewing on his trademark senbon, "It's already been reported to the other countries, I've seen many of their genin already in the village. So when does it begin?"

"It will begin in a week," said the Hokage as he watched his favorite blonde genin walking through the village with his crystal ball, _'Something is different about young Naruto today.' _As he continued to pondered on the rather, un-Naruto like attitude his surrogate grandson seemed to have about him, the image of the blonde genin vanished as he entered his rundown apartment. The Hokage mentally sighed as he watched the image fade, the same thing had been happening for the past four years, almost as if something, or someone, was blocking his Telescope Jutsu.

Dismissing the thoughts concerning his surrogate grandson, the Sandaime lifted his head and saw that many of the assembled ninja were mumbling to one another. "For the sake of those who do not know, I will announce it properly, seven days from now, on the first day of the seventh moon…the Chuunin Selection Exam will commence!" The only people who showed any kind of reaction to the news were a few of the younger, less experienced chuunin from the Academy, "Now onto the nominations…we'll begin with those who are watching over our newest crop of genin."

Knowing that was their cue, Kakashi and his fellow jounin's stepped forward in front of the assembled group, and stood before their leader. "Kakashi, Kurenai and Asuma...are there any of your genin that you feel are ready to enter this Chuunin Selection Exam?"

Towards the back of the crowd of ninja, Iruka furrowed his brow in confusion, _'Hokage-sama doesn't need to ask them, the nine of them aren't ready yet.'_

"Kakashi, you may start," said the Hokage. Many of the ninja in the room thought that Kakashi wasn't going to nominate his team, hell some of them were still reeling from the shock of Kakashi actually passing a team and becoming a sensei.

Many were surprised when Kakashi raised his right hand and formed a half ram seal, but his words nearly gave them a heart attack. "I lead team 7, Sasuke Uchiha, Naruto Uzumaki and Sakura Haruno…Now I, Kakashi Hatake, nominate all three of these genin to take the Chuunin Selection Exam." The Hokage smirked slightly at the nomination; he had a strong suspicion that Kakashi would nominate his team after his report of their little adventure in Nami no Kuni.

Iruka's eyes widened as he listened to Kakashi's nomination and he couldn't stop from letting out a startled, "What?"

Kurenai formed the same seal as Kakashi and made her nomination, "Team 8, Hinata Hyuuga, Kiba Inuzuka and Shino Aburame… I, Kurenai Yuuhi, nominate all three of them to partake in the Chuunin Selection Exam."

Asuma already had the seal formed when Kurenai finished, "My team is number 10, Ino Yamanaka, Shikamaru Nara and Choji Akimichi… I, Asuma Sarutobi, nominate all three of my students to take the Chuunin Selection Exam." A shocked silence followed the three jounin's nominations; this was first time in over five years that a rookie genin team had been nominated to the Exams, and the first time since the reign of the Nidaime Hokage, that all of the rookie teams were going to take part.

"Hold on!" shouted Iruka as he pushed his way to the front of the group.

"What is it Iruka?" asked the Hokage, already knowing what had gotten the chuunin instructor so riled up.

"Hokage-sama, I may be speaking out of place, but all of the nine names just given were students of mine at the Academy. I know that all of them are very talented, but it is too early for them to be taking these Exams. They have all only been genin for a few short months, they need more experience. I can't understand the jounin's reasoning for nominating the nine of them."

"You forgot that I became a chuunin when I was six years younger than Naruto," said Kakashi as he turned to face the chuunin.

"Naruto is not the same as you!" the Academy instructor all but yelled at the masked jounin. "Are you trying to destroy these kids!? The Chuunin Exam is…!"

"I can understand your feelings on the matter Iruka, it must be upsetting to you but…"

"Kakashi, stop already," said Kurenai, not liking the tone her fellow jounin was using.

"Stay out of this Kurenai. Iruka needs to understand that they are no longer students in his care… they are soldiers under my command." Iruka ground his teeth together as he glared at the famed Copy Ninja, knowing that there was not much else he could do at this point.

Deciding to break the tension that had enveloped the room, the Hokage attempted to get the meeting back on track. "Now that we have heard from the sensei's of our rookie genin, are there any others who wish to nominate their genin for the exams?" A few of the other jounin, most of them sensei's for teams that had been genin for a couple of years stepped forward to make nominations, but everyone's attention was drawn to a figure dressed in almost all green as he stepped forward and stood by Kakashi.

"I lead last year's team 9, Neji Hyuuga, Rock Lee and Tenten… I, Might Gai, hereby nominate all of my youthful students take part in the Chuunin Selection Exams!" said the spandex wearing jounin, ending with his signature 'Nice guy' pose, complete with sparkling teeth. Turning to his self-proclaimed 'eternal rival,' the master taijutsu user's tone became more serious, "Kakashi, my eternal rival, are you certain your youthful genin are ready for a challenge such as the Chuunin Exams? I myself held my team back for a year to hone their skills so that they would be better prepared for what these Exams will bring."

Kakashi looked up from reading his favorite orange book, ignoring the glares he was getting from the kunoichi's present, "Huh, you say something Gai?"

"AHHH, CURSE YOU KAKASHI! YOU AND YOUR HIP ATTITUDE!" everyone sweat dropped as they watched the antics of the two renowned jounin.

"Anyway," said Kakashi putting his nose back into his favorite piece of porn, "What I do with my team is none of your concern. Besides, who are you to judge my students skill when you haven't even seen them in action?"

Before Gai had a chance to respond, the voice of the Hokage interrupted him, "Enough, now if there are no other nominations for the Exams, than I officially call this meeting to a close." Standing from his cushioned chair, the Sandaime vanished in a shunshin, quickly followed by the assembled group of ninja.

Had any of them stayed for a few seconds more, they would have noticed a shadowed figure appear in a darkened corner of the room before silently disappearing. _'This ought to be interesting; I wonder how Naruto will take the news?'_

_Naruto's Apartment_

Sitting on his bed in the lotus position, Naruto's eyes were closed as an aura of calm settled over the normally hyperactive boy. Now that he had a chance to think in peace, the blonde shinobi focused his thoughts on the one thing, or person in this case, that had been troubling him: Gaara no Sabaku. Though it may come as a surprise to many, Naruto was very skilled in the art of reading things, both human and creature. They may have only been face to face for a few short minutes, but that was all the time Naruto needed to get a good feeling for the other boy's state of mind. He knew from firsthand experience that the dark and murderous aura the boy projected was nothing more than a defense mechanism he used to protect himself. But what he was protecting himself from, Naruto did not know. That, however, was not the reason the redhead troubled Naruto so badly; what troubled him was the chakra the boy exuded. The young shinobi's chakra was thick with uncontrolled bloodlust; despite the falseness of his aura, there was nothing false about the power and thirst for blood his chakra created. It was a feeling Naruto was all too familiar with, being what he was, it was easy for him to identify the source of the young shinobi's power: a bijuu.

It was the only logical explanation Naruto could think of, and one that caused a chill to run down his spine. He understood how the boy must have been treated for him to turn out the way he did, as there was a time when he had almost succumbed to the same fate. If it were not for the Sandaime Hokage and his _true _sensei, he had no doubt that he may have turned out just as Gaara had. His morbid thoughts were interrupted as he felt a very familiar presence appear on the far side of his room. Barely cracking one eye open, Naruto glanced at the newcomer before returning to his meditation. "Is something wrong, sensei? It's rare for you to come to my humble abode."

A deep, throaty chuckle escaped the man's lips as he answered, "No, nothing's wrong. I just thought I'd drop by and let you know that Kakashi has nominated you and your team for the upcoming Chuunin Exams."

"So he really did decide to nominate us, huh?" heaving a resigned sigh, the blonde opened his eyes fully and looked over at his sensei, "I suppose it was to be expected, though I had hoped he wouldn't, as a team we are simply not ready for this."

"That may be," said the man as he stepped out of the shadows, revealing his rather tall frame and long spiky white hair, "But perhaps these exams can serve as the catalyst to help your team reach its full potential."

"Maybe," mumbled Naruto, "But the only way that could happen is if Sasuke can get past his insecurities and if Sakura actually starts taking her career as a kunoichi seriously. And you and I both know that the possibility of either of those happening, let alone both, is slim to none." Despite the unlikeliness of it actually happening, Naruto couldn't help but hope that his sensei was right, and that the exams would help to bring them together. Though he had a feeling that they could just as easily cause the rifts in team 7 to only get larger.

"I know that Naruto," said the white haired man. In all honesty, the blonde genin's situation was far too reminiscent to his situation with his former team mates for his liking, and he would do anything to prevent his apprentice from going through that pain. "Naruto, I've told you on more than one occasion that your team is almost exactly like mine used to be. I understand how frustrating it can be hoping that your team mates will get past their demons and truly learn to work with you. But I am telling you now, don't make the same mistake I did and foolishly hope that things will work themselves out. If you truly wish for your team to become what I know it can become, you will have to take matters into your own hands."

"And what do you propose I do Jiraiya-sensei?" asked Naruto with a little heat, "I've tried numerous times to approach them about helping them, and every single time they brush me off as an annoying, loud mouthed idiot that doesn't understand anything about them. There's nothing else I can do without them getting past their insecurities first."

"Yes there is," said Jiraiya after a long moment of thought, "There is one thing you have yet to try, and though you may not like it, it has the best chance of success." Naruto narrowed his eyes in confusion, prompting his sensei to elaborate. "If the two of them won't listen to Naruto Uzumaki, dead-last of the Academy," said blondes eyes widened slightly as he realized where Jiraiya was going, "Then perhaps they will listen to Naruto _Namikaze,_ son of the Yondaime Hokage and apprentice to Jiraiya of the Sannin."

"Are you serious sensei?" said Naruto in a near whisper, "Are you sure it's a good idea to tell them? What about my father's enemies? Won't they try and make a move against me when word about my heritage gets out?"

"They most likely will," relented Jiraiya, "But despite that mask you wear, we both know you have the skills to go head-to-head with most chuunin's out there."

Naruto absently nodded as he was still recovering from the shock of Jiraiya claiming it was time he took on his true name and mantel. While it may indeed help with the situation concerning his team mates, letting this information come to light had many more consequences and repercussions as well. How would the villagers react? Would the revelation make even a few of them look past their hatred of him and recognize him for what he really was? Or would they deny it vehemently and hate him that much more for trying to take his father's, there heroes, name? His inner musings were stopped by a firm hand being placed on his shoulder. Looking up into the eyes of his godfather, Naruto saw that the man had a knowing smile playing across his features.

"I know this is a big decision for you to make Naruto, and you're worried about the repercussions that will undoubtedly come from it. But remember, just because you're revealing this information to your team doesn't mean that you have to tell the rest of the village about it. Let this serve as the first true test to see if your team truly deserves your trust and friendship. Reveal a little of your skills to get their attention, and then tell them what you need to tell them and swear them to secrecy concerning it. We can deal with the rest of the village in due time," said Jiraiya with a reassuring squeeze to his students shoulder. Knowing the blonde needed some time to think, Jiraiya released his shoulder and moved towards the shadows he appeared from, "I'll be staying in the village for the duration of the Exams and a little while afterward, if you need to talk, you know how to find me." With that parting statement, the Toad Sage walked into the shadows and vanished in a silent shunshin.

Naruto closed his eyes, regaining his meditation as he mulled over what his godfather had said. The idea had merit, that he would willingly admit, but would it truly work? Could revealing who he truly was and what he was truly capable of really help to bring them together? Even if Jiraiya believed it would, as a shinobi, he had to look at all of the possibilities that could come from his decisions. While these revelations could potentially work, they could also prove disastrous. Was he willing to risk pushing Sasuke, and by extension Sakura, away even further by showing them that he was stronger than he seemed?

With a soft chuckle, Naruto delved deeper into his meditation, his mind clearing as he reached his decision. One that would drastically change not only his life, but the lives of everyone he knew.

_Training Ground 7- The Next Morning_

Sasuke Uchiha was annoyed. First his attempt at learning another fire technique this morning ended in failure, and now he had the unfortunate luck of running into Sakura on his way to a team meeting and the pink haired girl wouldn't shut up or stop asking him for dates. Thankfully, they weren't far from the training ground so he could start practicing his newest jutsu again, and Sakura would go sit on the side lines watching him like she always did, giving him at least some peace and quiet for a few hours. That plan was put on hold as they entered the training grounds to a very unusual sight.

Naruto was there, though that wasn't very unusual. The blonde shinobi was always the first one to arrive, his apartment being relatively close by. No, what was unusual was the fact that the blonde was sitting on top of the center training post in the clearing, apparently meditating. Sasuke's eyebrows rose at the sight, a clear sign that he was surprised at the behavior of the normally loud mouthed ninja. Sakura likewise was surprised at the out of character behavior of her team mate. Usually the orange wearing genin would start pestering her for dates the second he saw her, or start challenging Sasuke to prove that he was better than the dark haired teen.

Slowly approaching her team mate, Sakura tried to get his attention, "Naruto, is everything ok?" she asked, not entirely sure if she liked this new side of the blonde or not. Though she would never admit it to anyone, she actually liked it when he asked her for dates. It made her feel more confident about herself that someone, even if they were as annoying as Naruto, thought she was attractive and would openly express their feelings for her.

The blonde didn't answer for a few minutes, and that caught even Sasuke's full attention. That Naruto would seemingly ignore Sakura of all people for any amount of time was not a good sign. Thankfully, to both his team mates hidden relief, Naruto eventually answered, though his voice wasn't the loud, grating at times, noise they had come to expect from the blonde. "Get what training you can in before Kakashi gets here, because once he does we all have much to discuss." The tone of finality in the blonde's voice caught the other two genin completely off guard, but than what he said finally sank in. What the hell could Naruto want to talk about that could be important enough to cause this sudden change in the blonde's personality?

Wary of what was to come, the two remaining genin of team 7 decided to heed their team mates advice for once. Sasuke moved a couple of yards away and began to practice with his jutsu again, while Sakura, surprisingly, went to a tree nearby and began to use her chakra to walk up and down the trunk like they had seen Kakashi do when he first showed them the exercise.

An hour later, Naruto's voice broke the silence that had enveloped the three genin, "Get out here Kakashi, now is not the time for your dramatics." Sasuke and Sakura, who had stopped training a few minutes ago, looked at the still meditating blonde in confusion before a rustle of leaves alerted them to the arrival of their sensei. Eyes widening in surprise, the two turned to see Kakashi a few yards away from them, for once not reading his signature smut book.

Kakashi himself had his one visible eyebrow raised in surprise that he had been noticed, let alone by Naruto of all people. Though he wasn't truly trying to conceal his presence, for a genin to notice a hidden jounin was no small feat. Deciding to deal with the change in his blonde student later, Kakashi prepared to tell the three genin about the Chuunin Exams, only to stop short as Naruto spoke up.

"Before you begin Kakashi, there is something that all of us need to discuss," not giving his sensei or team mates a chance to ask the question they all wanted to ask, Naruto pulled a premade seal tag out of his hip pouch. Throwing the piece of paper at the ground a few yards away, Naruto formed the seal of the tiger and whispered, "Guardian of Silence: Fuin." Immediately, the seal tag began to glow a soft blue before a dome of chakra spread across the field, invisible to all who did not possess a dojutsu. Opening his eyes, Naruto jumped down from his place on the training post, an unusually serious expression on his normally cheerful face.

For the first time since arriving, everyone got a good look at the blonde jinchuuriki and only now did they realize the change in his attire. Gone was the hideous orange jumpsuit he was known for, and in its place was clothing befitting a true shinobi. Black cargo pants tucked into mesh armor around his shins with black shinobi sandals covering his feet. A deep blood red, sleeveless shirt with a black Uzumaki swirl on the back over a short sleeved, skin tight, mesh armor shirt covered his torso and black bandages wrapped around his forearms. He had a shuriken holster attached to both of his thighs and two hip pouches on the back of his pants. He had changed his headbands cloth from blue to black with longer ends that reached his shoulders, and oddly enough, he also had two medium sized black scrolls with red edges attached to his lower back, just above his hip pouches.

Snapping out of his momentary funk, Kakashi spoke up, "Well Naruto… I must admit that you certainly live up to your title as the number one unpredictable ninja. I like the new look, it suits you, but I have to ask; since when have you been able to perform fuinjutsu? It's one of the most obscure arts known in the ninja world, not something one learns from a scroll or text on their own."

Naruto smirked at the suspicious undertone in his sensei's voice, he knew that his little display would garner suspicion from the jounin; in fact he was counting on it. "Your right Kakashi," he said with his smirk widening as he watched his supposed sensei's hand twitch at the lack of 'sensei' to his name, "It's not something one usually learns on their own, and I am no exception to that rule. My real sensei, the one who has trained me since I was eight years old taught me the art."

"'Real sensei,' and who exactly would that be Naruto?" asked Kakashi, losing all pretense of hiding his suspicions and letting his right hand slip into his hip pouch.

"My godfather," said the blonde, his smirk almost splitting his face as he watched the three remaining members' of team 7's eyes widen in complete surprise.

"Godfather?" questioned Sakura, the statement finally managing to knock her and Sasuke out of their stupors. "I thought you were a clanless orphan?" she asked before she remembered his reaction to people making assumptions about his life in Nami and she covered her mouth. Knowing how he was likely to react to the question, the pink haired girl immediately tried to apologize, "Oh my god, Naruto I'm so sorry…"

A dry, mirthless chuckle escaped the blonde, a sound that caused even Sasuke to shudder slightly, "Don't worry about it Sakura, it means a lot to me that you care enough to even attempt to apologize for something like that." Sakura attempted to smile at the blonde's admission, but it slipped when she realized that he hadn't said her name with the usual 'chan' suffix. "But to answer your question, I am an orphan, but that doesn't mean that I don't have people out there who care about me. As for being clanless… well, that's one of the things I am going to tell you."

Kakashi's mind quickly made the connection in the blonde's words, "You know who your parents are," he said in a soft voice, knowing exactly who Naruto's parents were. Finally, the silver haired jounin had a chance to quit living a lie; he finally had a chance to be the sensei he always wanted to be, not the one the Council and Elders forced him to be. He would be the first to admit that he was a lousy sensei, not only to Naruto, but also to Sasuke and Sakura as well. The Council had blackmailed him into focusing solely on Sasuke's, and to a lesser extent, Sakura's training, but to completely ignore Naruto so as to keep him weak.

It tore him up inside that he was effectively being told to leave Naruto to the vultures without any formal training to defend himself. Though it only added to his shame, he had done the absolute bare minimum in regards to training Sasuke and Sakura, and lying to the Council about their progress. But now, he had a chance to truly train his team the way he wanted to train them. Even if the Council tried to deny the boy his heritage, with the backing of the Hokage, and the boys mysterious godfather, he could tell the Council to, quite literally, piss off and quit interfering with his team.

Sasuke thoughts were a blur as he had come to a similar conclusion as Kakashi. If he was interpreting what Naruto had said correctly, than it meant that he and his blonde team mate had backgrounds that were even more similar than he first suspected. Ever since he learned a little of Naruto's past during their mission in Nami no Kuni, his respect for the blonde had steadily grown. He understood the pain of loneliness that he had been forced into ever since Itachi had murdered their clan. That alone allowed them to understand each other on level that no one else could ever hope to, but if Naruto truly was from a clan… then maybe, just maybe, he could finally have someone he could actually relate to, someone who could actually see him for him, not his name, someone he could consider a brother.

"However," began the blonde, "Before I tell you all anything, I want you to swear on your honor as ninja of Konoha, that you will never reveal what I am about to tell you without my express consent." Kakashi understood immediately why the blonde was asking for such an oath, and without a moment's hesitation, he swore himself to secrecy. Sasuke and Sakura knew from the Academy that swearing an oath on ones honor as a shinobi was like swearing an oath to the Hokage, absolute, and to break such an oath was one of the severest crimes a shinobi could commit. Though they hesitated for a moment, their curiosity about what had changed in their team mate won out and they swore their oaths as well. "Good," though he remained serious on the outside, he was internally relieved that they agreed to swear the oaths; it showed that they were at least loyal enough to him to not willingly betray his trust. "Now, I know this is going to be hard for you all to believe, particularly you two," he said looking pointedly at Sasuke and Sakura, "But know that I will never lie to you about matters such as this. Now, my mother was Kushina Uzumaki, a skilled kunoichi whose clan hailed from Uzu no Kuni. My father though was born in Konoha and he was orphaned at a young age, the same as I was. His name…was Minato Namikaze… the Yondaime Hokage."

A pregnant pause answered Naruto's declaration as his team fully processed the information they had been given. Kakashi was barely restraining himself from shouting out in happiness, a scene that would have been far too reminiscent of those of his so called 'eternal rival.' He may have known who Naruto's parents were, but knowing and hearing it from the boy himself, were two completely different feelings. The knowledge of knowing who Naruto's parents were, yet being unable to tell the boy had been eating away at him since his days in Anbu. But now he no longer had to carry that burden, he was free of its crushing weight and with his new freedom, he was going to do things his way, the Council be damned.

If it was not for the sudden one eighty their team mates personality had taken, and the fact that he was treating this with the level of seriousness he was, Sasuke and Sakura would have most likely laughed at the idea of Naruto being the son of the Yondaime Hokage. But the fact that Kakashi, who was known as the prodigal student of the Yondaime, didn't try and deny the claim caused them to bite their tongues. That Naruto wasn't running around the village bragging to anyone about this news only reiterated how serious the matter was and helped to give the claim more weight in their minds.

Just as Naruto was beginning to think that Jiraiya might have been wrong, Sasuke broke him out of his thoughts. "Are you serious, Naruto?" the fact that Sasuke actually addressed him by his name threw Naruto for a slight lope, while managing to bring Kakashi and Sakura out of their temporary stupors.

"Yes, Sasuke, dead serious," said Naruto, his hopes rising slightly. "My godfather had a friend of his run a blood test so that when the time came for me to claim my true name; we had the tests to prevent anyone from denying me my birthright."

Sasuke then did something none of them had ever seen before, he smiled. A true, genuine smile adorned the last Uchiha's face as he walked up to his stunned team mate and clasped his shoulder, conveying his support to the blonde genin. "Though we both came from different upbringings, our histories are almost identical to each other. Know that even if those jackasses on the Council don't support your claim, I do."

A smile of his own forming, Naruto clasped Sasuke's shoulder as well, the tentative bonds of brotherhood between the two shinobi strengthening. A few feet away, a proud smile could be seen underneath the mask of the Copy Ninja as he watched his two students. _'They finally understand what it truly means to be team mates, brothers in arms. Now if only Sakura can get over her childish crush on Sasuke…'_

"Yeah, Sasuke-kun's right," said the resident pinkette of team 7, "No matter what happens, we'll always support you Naruto." This statement caused all of the males present to inwardly sigh, even in a situation as serious and emotional as this, she still manages to convey her undying support for the last Uchiha.

Though he appreciated the show of support, no matter how influenced it may have seemed, Naruto knew that he had to straighten Sakura out or the girl was going to end up getting herself killed. "Sakura," he said looking the girl straight in the eye, "Think very carefully about how you answer this; do you truly mean what you are saying, or are you only doing it because of Sasuke?"

Just as the young kunoichi was about to say of course she meant it, a stern glare from not only Naruto, but Sasuke and Kakashi as well stopped her short. Looking at the ground, Sakura contemplated if she really did mean what she had said. For so long she had been supporting Sasuke and his decisions, not really thinking things through on her own. So when Sasuke said he would support Naruto, her mind automatically agreed with him and said she would as well, not even considering her own feelings on the matter. But now that she truly thought about it, she did mean what she had said. She may have been annoyed by Naruto's old antics, just like everyone else in the village, but he had proven his loyalty and trust in her numerous times, the least she could do was prove that she was worthy of that trust.

Looking up into the eyes of her blonde team mate, a fierce determination could be seen burning in her emerald orbs. "I mean it Naruto, I will always support you, that's what team mates are for aren't they?"

Naruto gave a small smirk in response as he waved the last member of team 7 over. Once she reached them, Naruto placed his other hand on Sakura's shoulder as well, "Thank you Sakura, and you're right, that is what team mates are for."

Gaining a small playful smile, Sakura flipped her hair a little, "Of course I'm right, I was the top kunoichi at the Academy." Even Sasuke couldn't help but smirk at the pinkette's comment; he could admit that when Sakura wasn't obsessing over him, she was actually a decent person to be around.

Kakashi's smile returned in full force as his team seemed to have finally come together, even if it was just a little. His smile turned into a frown as his mind returned to the reason he had called the team meeting, _'Now that they have bonded more as a team, their chances in the Exams just went up a notch, but in terms of skill, only Sasuke and Naruto are truly ready for the Second and Third Stages of the Exams. I'll have to up their training for the next week to try and get them all up to par and get them used to working with the new skills each of them will develop as well.'_

"Alright team," the three genin turned towards Kakashi, each of them immediately becoming serious when they saw their sensei's expression. "My original plan for this meeting was to inform you all that I had nominated you guys for the Chuunin Exams being held in a week and let you guys rest up and prepare for a week on your own." Sasuke and Sakura's eyebrows rose in surprise, but Naruto retained his serious expression, something Kakashi wasn't completely surprised by. "But now that plan has changed, with Naruto's sudden change in abilities, Sasuke and Sakura need time to get used to working with this new you. Also, Sasuke I will be helping you hone your ability with your Sharingan and Sakura I'll have you working on upping your chakra reserves, improve your taijutsu and maybe get you started on learning the basics of medical ninjutsu. For now though, we'll start with another chakra control exercise, water walking."

"I already know this exercise Kakashi-sensei," Naruto said, feeling that Kakashi had earned his proper title with what he had planned for them. "If you want, I can work with Sasuke and Sakura to get them up to speed on it while you go and get some scrolls of medical ninjutsu for Sakura and whatever other supplies you'll need to help train us."

"I had a feeling you would already know the exercise Naruto," the cycloptic jounin said, "Alright, you get those two started while I fetch some supplies, I'll be back in a flash." With that, the copy-nin disappeared in poof of smoke, leaving his students to work.

Turning towards the river that ran through the training ground, Naruto motioned for his team mates to follow him. As soon as they reached the bank of the river, Sasuke and Sakura stopped but where surprised when Naruto continued to walk and had to stop themselves from openly gaping when he started walking across the surface of the water. Stopping once he reached the center of the river, Naruto turned to see his wide eyed team mates and smirked. "Alright you two, this is the water walking exercise. It's similar to the tree walking, but instead of a fixed amount of chakra, you have to emit a continuous stream of chakra from your feet into the water to remain on the surface. Now normally, I'd let you find out the proper amount of chakra to emit on your own, but we're kind of in a rush, so we're going to cheat a little bit. Sakura, start off by placing a single foot on the water's surface until you feel like you have the chakra amount correct then step out with the other foot. Keep repeating that process until you feel comfortable enough to walk normally." The lone female nodded in understanding and stepped up the water's edge and placed her right foot on the surface, already emitting her chakra to keep it in place. "Sasuke, while Sakura's doing that, use your Sharingan to see how I'm moving my chakra and try and replicate it on your own, but remember, every person's body is different, so the proper amount and how you emit it will be slightly different than mine."

Nodding in understanding, the last Uchiha's eyes flickered from black to red as his two tomoe Sharingan appeared. Looking at Naruto's feet, Sasuke saw that he was emitting a constant, yet focused stream of chakra from the soles of his feet. Placing a foot on the water's surface, Sasuke tried to take another step, only for his control to slip slightly and he sank ankle deep in the water. Remembering what Naruto had said about everyone being different, Sasuke increased the amount of chakra slightly and felt his body rise slightly, but not completely out of the water.

This was the scene that Kakashi returned to thirty minutes later; Sakura was jogging along the water's surface, in an attempt to use more chakra and help increase her reserves. Sasuke and Naruto where having a small taijutsu bout on the river, forcing Sasuke to split his attention and helping him to get more accustomed to walking on water. "That's enough for now team, come over here for a minute," the three genin walked back to their sensei and stood at attention in front of him. "Now before we get any further, I'm going to test each of you for your elemental affinity. This will tell us what type of jutsu will be easiest for you to use and which ones you need to train in order to counter. Naruto, I'm assuming your other sensei has already tested you for your affinities, correct?"

"Yeah, I'm a wind and water type," said the blonde, channeling a bit of chakra into the chakra paper he pulled out of his hip pouch. The paper reacted immediately by splitting in half, before both sides darkened and became damp.

"Two affinities right from the start, impressive, and one offensive and one defensive element as well, a good combination. Now Sasuke, Sakura, channel your chakra into these slips of paper, how it reacts will tell us your natural affinity." Sasuke's paper instantly began to crumple when his chakra came into contact with it, while Sakura's hardened and began to crumble into dirt. "Well, well, this is certainly interesting, between the three of you, you have access to every single element. Sasuke, it appears you natural affinity is lightning, the same as mine, and Sakura your affinity is earth, one of the strongest defensive elements out there. We'll begin working on the practical application of manipulating your elements tomorrow, until then, Sasuke, Sakura; you can head home, but make sure you read these scrolls on the theory of lightning and earth manipulation. Naruto, I'm going to need to get a handle on your true level of skill so I can plan out methods on how you all can work together and capitalize on each other's strengths and cover your weaknesses."

Sasuke and Sakura took the scrolls Kakashi gave them, but instead of leaving, they walked over to the training posts and sat down, intent on seeing what their team mate was truly capable of. Seeing that his two students weren't planning on moving anytime soon, Kakashi turned to his blonde pupil and was forced duck under a powerful roundhouse that would have left his ears ringing. Completely caught off guard, Kakashi barely managed to roll away from the follow up chakra enhanced punch that left a slight crater on the ground.

Kakashi only had a few seconds the gape at the strength, chakra enhanced or not, that his student had. _'I may not know how skilled he is, but I know you would be proud of the shinobi your son is on his way to becoming Minato-sensei,' _he was forced out of his thoughts as Naruto threw a single shuriken at him and formed a few hand seals, causing the single shuriken to multiply into dozens. _'Though maybe I should have asked him to simply tell me his skills,' _thought the copy-nin as he jumped away from the hail of steel.

* * *

**And there you have it, the first chapter of Unmasked. I hope you all enjoyed it and I hope to hear from you your thoughts on it so far. **

**Until next time, my loyal readers,**

**BSW**


	2. Chapter 2

**The second chapter is complete and ready to go; hope you all enjoy it!**

**Thank you to everyone who reviewed, followed and favorited this new fic, it's good to know that everyone still enjoys my stories. Another progress report on Kumo's Black Fox and Jinchuuriki Unleashed, the chapters have been started and are about 60% and 50% completed respectively.**

**As always, I own nothing**

**Chapter 2- The Exams**

_A Week Later- Training Ground 7_

Naruto and Sasuke jumped back from each other, only to charge in again and engage in a fierce taijutsu bout. A few yards away, Sakura was dodging multiple shuriken and kunai that were being thrown at her by Kakashi and about ten clones. Ducking under a roundhouse kick from the last Uchiha, Naruto caught the ankle of the offending appendage and threw the dark haired teen away. Sasuke flipped in midair and landed on the surface of a tree before dropping back to the ground.

"That's enough for now," said the blonde of team 7 as he checked the position of the sun, "We need to start making our way to the Academy, the first part of the Exams are about to begin." Sasuke nodded and walked back over the blonde as Sakura and Kakashi finished as well.

Once all of them were together, Kakashi began leading them through the streets of the village. In the short week they had spent training, team 7 had grown in both skill and camaraderie. The Copy Ninja had ceased with his usual tardiness, arriving at the time he instructed his students too, and the fruits from the extra time together were already showing. Sasuke, while he had not fully mastered his lightning affinity, had already learned the two Raiton techniques Kakashi had shown him; also, the dark haired genin had made sufficient progress with his Sharingan. He could now trap enemies within a genjutsu with eye contact alone, though that contact had to be maintained for a few seconds to allow the illusions to take hold. Another thing they had worked on were a few of his clans fire techniques, and Sasuke was proud to say he had added another two of those jutsu to his arsenal.

It was Sakura though, who truly blossomed over the week. She had finally become to prove herself worthy of the top kunoichi title she earned from the Academy. It was tricky in the beginning for her to grasp what Kakashi was teaching her, but they had discovered quickly that she didn't learn through trial and error or natural genius, like her team mates did. Instead, she preferred to study and get a full grasp of understanding from a theoretical point of view, before actually attempting things herself. So to test just how effective this method of learning was for the pinkette, Kakashi had given her a scroll containing in depth details on a basic Doton jutsu, the Earth-Style Wall, and had her memorize everything she could about it before having her perform the technique. The results were astounding; on her first attempt at performing the jutsu, she had managed to raise a wall out of the earth a good four feet tall, though it left her considerably drained afterward. With her chosen method of training in hand, Sakura had taken every scroll their sensei gave her and set to memorizing everything she could from them, and when she wasn't reading, she was exercising on the surface of the lake to help increase her reserves.

"Well team, this is it," said the silver haired jounin as he glanced over his shoulder, "I want you all to know that no matter how you fare, I'm proud to call you my students." The three genin stood that much straighter at the praise their sensei gave them, "Although, I have a feeling that you all will do quite well in these exams."

"Of course we will," said Naruto, despite having dropped the mask of the idiot, his old confidence was still present. "I wouldn't be surprised if all of us made chuunin once this is over."

Kakashi chuckled slightly while Sasuke and Sakura nodded in agreement with their team mate, "I'm sure you will, but no matter how this plays out, remember the first thing I taught you guys."

"Those who ignore the rules are trash…" began Sakura.

"But those who abandon their comrades…" said Sasuke.

"Are worse than trash," finished Naruto as the team arrived outside of the Academy. Despite being the sight for the first part of the Chuunin Exams, the field around the building was decidedly empty.

"Well, this is as far as I go," Kakashi said as he turned to his team and gave them an eye smile, "Now show them all what team 7 is capable of."

"Hai," chorused the genin as Kakashi disappeared in a cloud of smoke, "Alright, time to put our plan into action." Turning to his pink haired team mate, Naruto waved his hand to the side, "Sakura, if you would do the honors."

"On it," she said as she formed a short chain of seals. Finishing in the ram seal, the images of the three genin shimmered slightly as the cloaking genjutsu took effect. Once the illusion had taken hold, the three looked exactly as they did before the week began clothes and all. "There, now let's just hope no one is stupid enough to try and break the illusion."

"Don't worry Sakura, if they do, I'll be able to sense their chakra spike before they can finish the process." Both Sasuke and Sakura nodded at their blonde team mates words. It had surprised them when Naruto revealed that he was a natural sensor type shinobi, something that wasn't all that common in Konoha.

"Tell me again why we're hiding our true selves under a genjutsu," said Sasuke, as they made their way into the Academy and started heading towards the third floor.

"Because Sasuke, deception is a ninja's greatest weapon; as we are now people will be more likely to underestimate us, making it that much easier for us to defeat them."

"I get hiding our skills and abilities, but why hide our appearances. It would be just as effective to have our enemies know to be wary us."

"I thought we took care of that whole, I must uphold my clan honor thing?" mused Naruto, getting a halfhearted glare from Sasuke.

"It's not my fault my clan is naturally battle ready, and I am no different," said the dark haired genin with a huff.

"He says that like it's supposed to be a good thing," Naruto whispered to Sakura, getting a giggle out of the pinkette and a scowl from the dark haired teen.

"Keep talking dobe, one of these days that mouth of yours is going to get you into something you can't get out of."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever teme."

"Alright you two, that's enough, we have an exam to take, remember?" said Sakura, using a tone one would normally use to scold children, causing the two boys to sulk slightly. "Now let's go, I for one don't want to be late," she said as she walked past the two sulking shinobi and started down the hallway.

"Since when did she become the leader?" whispered Sasuke, causing Naruto to shrug. They both froze though as Sakura turned around and glared at the two of them.

"What was that boys?"

"Nothing!" the two frightened shinobi said as they kept walking. It didn't take them long to reach the third floor, but when they did, it was to find a large crowd of genin standing in front of a door being blocked by two older genin.

"Hey let us in!" said a bun haired girl as she helped who appeared to be her team mate up. Naruto raised an eyebrow and met his team mate's gaze, both of them giving a slight nod. Without so much as a look back, the three members of team 7 moved to the other side of the hallway and continued on towards their real destination.

As the three rookie genin walked off, a white eyed genin watched with a frown on his face. _'So that is team 7,' _thought the boy upon seeing the Uchiha fan on Sasuke's shirt, _'For a team that's being trained by the famous Copy Ninja Kakashi, they don't appear to be all that strong. It wouldn't matter anyway; fate has already determined the outcome of these exams.' _Turning back to his own team, he gestured for them to take another route towards the exam room.

It didn't take long for the disguised team 7 to reach the actual exam room, but once they did, they were blasted with killing intent from the hundreds of genin already in the room. Naruto and Sasuke didn't show any signs of being affected by the mass amounts of killing intent, Naruto because part of his training with Jiraiya was to increase his tolerance to the feeling, and Sasuke because of his pride, though he shivered slightly on the inside. Sakura however, began to shake a little bit, not having much experience fighting off the feeling. A reassuring glance from her blonde team mate eased her nerves and helped her to get a hold of herself again. The team was just about to move to an unoccupied corner when a very loud squeal sounded behind them.

Before any of them had a chance to blink, a blonde blur collided with Sasuke's back, nearly knocking him to the ground. "Oh Sasuke-kun, I've been waiting for you to show up!" gushed Ino as she rubbed her cheek against Sasuke's, much to the Uchiha's dismay. "I was beginning to think your sensei didn't let you enter, though that would probably be because of Forehead and the dobe over there."

Sakura bristled at the insult to her skills as a kunoichi, but surprisingly, she wasn't that bothered about Ino rubbing up against Sasuke, though that irked her in different way than it had before. _'Wow, I guess those sessions with Anko had more of an impact than I first thought,' _"Ino-pig, I would get off Sasuke if I were you, I don't think he's enjoying having your fat ass weighing him down."

Ino's face went red at the jab to her figure, but then her mind fully processed what Sakura had said, or to be more precise, what she hadn't. _'She didn't say Sasuke's name with the 'kun' suffix; what the hell happened to her? Has she given up on trying to get Sasuke-kun to love her?' _Not liking being out of the loop, Ino voiced her thoughts to her former friend and rival, "What's with you Sakura? Why did you say 'Sasuke' instead of 'Sasuke-kun?' Have you given up on trying to win him over?" Though she was happy that she had one less competitor for the heart of her crush, she was a little upset that she had lost the rivalry with her one time friend.

Sakura also felt the loss of the rivalry, but knew she had to try and help her former friend focus on her career as a kunoichi, lest she end up dead before she turned fourteen. "Yes Ino, I have given up on Sasuke, and so should you," Ino's eyes widened slightly at the bold statement, but Sakura continued undeterred, "We're not little girls anymore Ino, we're kunoichi and we need to start acting like it. I'm not saying we can't like someone and try and pursue them, but obsessing over that person to the point where we allow ourselves to become weak is not what we should be doing. If we like someone, then we should hone our skills so that we can live long enough to act on our feelings. I don't know about you, but that's what I'm going to do. I am going to become strong enough so that I can protect the one's I care about and so that I can live a long and prosperous life."

Both girls were so intent on the other that neither noticed Sasuke perform a substitution with Naruto. Naruto shot a glare at the Uchiha but sighed and let it go, if he had to deal with fan girls as much as Sasuke did, he probably would've done the same. So instead he turned his attention towards his fellow blonde as a look of complete and utter shock took over her features before it slowly morphed into one of far off thought. Sakura finally noticed that Ino was holding onto Naruto instead of Sasuke and had to fight to keep her laughter under control. She lost that battle the moment she saw her fellow kunoichi unconsciously snuggle deeper into her blonde team mate's back, causing the pinkette to giggle behind her hand.

Ino was stunned into silence as she listened to Sakura talk. She had heard a similar speech from her father and mother on many occasions, but there was something about hearing it from her childhood friend that had a larger impact on the blonde kunoichi. Her mind began to wonder as she mulled over her friends words. She had always thought of herself as a strong and proud kunoichi, but as she thought things over, she began to question her belief in herself. Unconsciously snuggling closer to the body she was holding onto, the blonde kunoichi noticed something that was different from before. _'That's weird, Sasuke-kun always had a good body, but this body feels so much more defined and… warm. I feel like I could just snuggle here all day.' _Sighing in content, she closed her eyes and snuggled even closer into the back of the person.

Naruto's mouth twitched into a small smile as he saw how content Ino was, but he figured he would spare her the endless teasing she was likely to receive should she be found snuggling into him. "Um… Ino, I'm glad you're so comfortable, but do you mind getting off? There is still the matter of the Chuunin Exams to deal with…" he trailed off as the platinum blondes eyes shot open at the sound of his voice. Snapping her head around to look at the face of the person she was currently snuggling into, Ino saw the deep sapphire pools that were Naruto's eyes looking into her own from a distance of about an inch. For a few seconds the two simply looked at one another, before Ino blushed scarlet and jumped off her fellow blonde's back, just before her team mates walked into the room.

"So you guys are taking this stupid test too, eh? What a drag…" said the lazy voice of Shikamaru Nara. Shikamaru turned to his female team mate and noticed how flustered she looked, _'What the hell happened to her?' _The lazy genius brushed it off for the time being as something to do with Sasuke, though he made a note to look into it a little later.

Naruto smirked as he looked at his fellow 'dead lasts' from the Academy, "Hey Shikamaru, Choji, you two still watching the clouds and eating instead of training?"

The Nara genius sighed, but a small smirk could be seen on his face, "Yeah, the only reason I'm here is because Ino dragged me here, and my mom would have killed me if I refused to enter. Troublesome women…" Choji merely kept on eating his chips, though he managed to get out a short 'Hey Naruto,' in-between handfuls.

"What was that Shikamaru?" asked Ino in a threatening tone, her lazy team mates comment finally knocking her out of her flustered state. Shikamaru simply shrugged and muttered 'troublesome' under his breath, much to the Ino's annoyance.

"Well what do you know," said a boy with a dog on his head and wearing a fur-lined jacket, "Looks like all of this year's rookies are taking the Exams. I wonder how far all of us will get?" The six genin turned to see team 8 walking up to them. Kiba was wearing a cocky smirk as always; Shino was his usual stoic self and Hinata looked as shy as ever.

Naruto smirked at his fellow genin, "Speak for yourself dog breath. I don't know what'll happen to you, but I plan on being a chuunin once this entire ordeal is over."

"That is a bold claim Naruto-san," said Shino with his hands in his pockets, "Many of the genin hear are the best that their villages have to offer, defeating them will be no easy feat." Naruto's smirk never wavered as he glanced over the crowd of assembled genin. Shino's eye narrowed behind his sunglasses as his insects started going crazy, telling him to be wary of the blonde genin. _'There is something different about him,' _thought the Aburame heir.

The stoic genin wasn't the only one to notice the change in the blonde. Shikamaru's mind was working overtime to try and understand what could make the blonde so confident in himself. He could tell that the confidence the boy held himself with was different from their time at the Academy. It wasn't a cocky or arrogant confidence like Kiba, but instead it was that of a person who understood the depth of their skill and power and wasn't afraid to prove it.

"H-h-hello N-Naruto-k-kun," stuttered Hinata as she looked at her secret crush. Her face flushed when the blonde looked her in the eye, his patented fox smirk in place.

"Hey Hinata, I hope you've been keeping your mutt of a team mate in line," he said causing the Inuzuka heir to growl low in his throat. Hinata looked down and started poking her fingers together as she stuttered out an answer.

"You know you guys should really keep it down," said a genin with glasses on, "You are the rookies fresh out of the Academy right?"

"And what if we are?" asked Sasuke as he glared at the new comer.

"Hey, hey, I'm just trying to help you guys out. Though you might want to keep an eye on those guys over there," he gestured to a team of older genin behind them; they all looked annoyed as they watched the nine rookies. "They're from Amegakure, and they have really short tempers, especially when their on edge. Not that you guys would know that, after all you're just rookies."

"So I take it you have taken these exams before, mister…" trailed Naruto, fishing for a name.

"Oh sorry, my name is Kabuto Yakushi, and yes I have taken these exams before. In fact this one will be my seventh attempt…" he finished lamely as he scratched the back of his neck.

"So in other words, you suck," said a smirking Kiba while Akamaru barked in agreement with his master.

"Or it means that these exams are harder than we first anticipated, Kiba," said Naruto, surprising his fellow rookies, with the exception of his team. "Our sensei always tells us to look underneath the underneath, so do not make the foolish assumption that the way you see things is the way it actually is. Doing that will be your downfall." _'Although… something doesn't feel right about this guy; his chakra reserves are almost on par with Kakashi-sensei's and the way he's suppressing it requires a high level of control. Whoever he is, he's no ordinary genin.'_

"Anyway," said Kabuto, bringing the attention back to him, "Since you guys are rookies, I'll share some of the information I have with you." Reaching into his hip pouch, the older genin brought out a deck of orange cards all with a green border. "These are Ninja Info Cards, they contain all of the information I have gathered on the exams, including information about specific participants, even you guys are in here."

"What about a boy named Gaara no Sabaku of Sunagakure? Do you have any information on him?" asked Sasuke, though it sounded more like a demand then a question. Naruto had told his team of his suspicions about Gaara, except for the fact that he was a jinchuuriki, but Sasuke wanted to see if this boy had information that they didn't.

"Of course, is there anyone else you would like some information on?" asked the silver haired teen as he drew a random card out of the deck.

"All of the members of team 7," the Rookie 9 whirled around to see a boy with pupiless white eyes just like Hinata's standing with two other genin. The girl was wearing a pink Chinese style shirt and dark green pants with her hair up in two buns. The other boy was wearing a full-body green spandex suit with orange leg warmers and his red headband around his waist like a belt. The members of team 8 and team 10 each wondered why the boy would want information on team 7, while the aforementioned team narrowed their eyes at the boy.

Before any of them had a chance to voice their curiosity, Kabuto had already drawn the three extra cards and placed them next to the card that held Gaara's information. "Well then, let's begin with Gaara no Sabaku." The twelve assembled genin turned towards the kneeling genin and watched as he spun the card with his finger before a small poof of smoke covered the card. The smoke cleared to reveal a picture of a red haired teen with lifeless sea foam green eyes and the kanji for 'Love' tattooed on his forehead. "Let see, his mission history is a little vague, but it seems that he has completed eight C-rank missions and, whoa… a B-ranked mission as a genin, very impressive. His team mates are his older siblings surprisingly, Temari and Kankuro. I don't know who his sensei is, but it says that he was personally chosen by the Kazekage to lead his children's squad. It's just a rumor, but it's said that he has returned from every mission he has ever been on completely unscathed."

All of the genin who had heard the information on the young redhead immediately stiffened. This boy had taken on a B-ranked mission and returned from it without even a single scratch? _'Just how strong is this guy?' _was the general thought process of the genin, with the exception of our favorite blonde hero. _'Completely unscathed, huh? I have a feeling his bijuu had a hand in that,' _thought the blonde before his eyes refocused on Kabuto. _'A ninja's mission record is classified information that only the kage and the higher ups of a villages military are privy to. How the hell did this guy get that kind of information on someone who isn't even from our village? And if he has that kind of information on a foreigner…' _his thoughts trailed off as Kabuto revealed the information on the next card.

"Next up, Sakura Haruno of Konohagakure," said the bespectacled shinobi, "Hmmm, mission history is pretty average for a genin; she and her team have completed twenty D-rank missions, and only two C-ranks, nothing special there. Her team mates are Sasuke Uchiha, the last loyal Uchiha in Konoha, and Naruto Uzumaki, the dead last from the Academy. Overall there is nothing special about her, just your average run of the mill genin. Although I do have a note stating that she has begun to study the art of medical ninjutsu, that's something one doesn't always see in a genin."

Sakura's eyes narrowed at the silver haired genin, _'How the hell does he know I've been studying to become a medic-nin? Kakashi-sensei only recently added that information to my kunoichi file, and I haven't told anyone else. Something is definitely not right here.' _Looking at her team mates, she saw that they too had their eyes narrowed in suspicion as Kabuto prepared the next card of information.

"Now for her team mate, Sasuke Uchiha," Neji's ears perked up as Kabuto began reading off the information. "Mission records are the same as his team, so let's look at his skills. He is proficient in the use of his clan's personal taijutsu style, his skills in genjutsu could use some work, but his proficiency with Katon techniques is well above average, as to be expected of an Uchiha. Well this is interesting, it seems that he also has a…" the older genin was cut off as a spike of killing intent came from the last Uchiha. Using the distraction his team mate provided, Naruto swiped Kabuto's entire deck of cards, as well as the ones he had set on the floor. Slipping the deck into his hip pouch, Naruto planned on sending the cards to the Hokage as evidence against the elder genin, but only after making a complete set of copies for himself and his team.

Sasuke and Sakura had seen what Naruto had done and smirked themselves. The information on those cards could prove to be invaluable during the exams, and they didn't plan on letting them go to waste.

A spike of chakra from the front of the room caught Naruto's attention as he turned just in time to see a large cloud of smoke appear. "Alright you bitches and bastards, shut up and pay attention!" shouted a deep voice from inside the cloud of smoke. Many of the participants jumped in surprise at the sound of the voice, but a small handful retained their composure. The smoke cleared away to reveal a burly man wearing a large black trench coat with a group of chuunin behind him. "My name is Ibiki Morino, the first proctor of the Chuunin Selection Exams, and as such I would like to welcome all of you… to hell."

Naruto smirked as he watched almost every single genin shiver in fear of the scarred jounin. _'So Ibiki the Mind Sadist is our proctor huh? This exam just got a whole lot more challenging.' _Glancing over at Sasuke and Sakura, he saw that while they didn't show any outward signs of being intimidated, their body language spoke otherwise. "Guys," he whispered so that only they could hear, "Don't let him get to you. Ibiki is the head of the Torture and Interrogation Division; he specializes in psychological warfare to extract information from people. So long as you keep your cool and retain a level head, you shouldn't fall for his tricks as easily as others, but you still need to keep your wits about you. He is known as the Mind Sadist for a reason…"

The two genin of team 7 nodded in understanding with their team mate's assessment of things. Everyone's attention was brought back to the burly jounin as he began barking out orders. "Now everyone is to come forward to receive a number, that number will represent where you will sit for the written exam. Now move it, I'm a busy man and I don't have time to deal with pathetic wannabe ninja." The second the man finished all of the genin were pretty much tripping over one another in order to get a number and avoid pissing the man off any more than he already was.

It only took a few minutes before everyone was assigned a number and had taken their respective seats for the written exam. All of the members of the soon to be dubbed, 'Konoha 12' were scattered throughout the rows of desks, with Naruto and Hinata being the only ones next to each other.

Ibiki stood at the front of the room as the chuunin sentinels finished passing out the written exams. Once all the papers had been distributed and the sentinels had taken up their positions around the room, the head of the T and I division began the first stage of the Chuunin Exams. "Now that everyone is ready, we can begin. Before you flip your tests over, there are a few rules that I must explain; first off is that each of you will begin the exam with a full ten points. Also, this test is based on a subtraction system, meaning you lose a point for every question you get wrong. The second rule, this exam is a team test, so whether you pass or fail is determined by the total number of points you and your team mates have at the end of the hour." Several of the genin paled slightly as the implications set in, but unfortunately for them, Ibiki wasn't quite through. "The third and possibly the most important rule, should any of you worthless maggots be caught cheating by the sentinels, you will have two points automatically deducted from their score. Now if everyone is ready, you may begin the exam." The sound of shuffling paper filled the room as the rattled genin turned over their tests, only for many of them to panic as they noticed the difficulty of the questions. "Oh and I almost forgot to mention the fourth and final rule for this test… should anyone receive a zero, whether from the sentinels or at the end of the exam… they and their team mates will automatically fail!"

The temperature in the room dropped significantly as everyone felt the weight of the pressure on their shoulders. "Your hour begins now, good luck… you'll need it," with that said, Ibiki and the sentinels sat back to enjoy the show they were about to be treated to.

Naruto narrowed his eyes in concentration as he looked down at his test and read over the first question, _'This is an advanced cryptogram that requires extensive knowledge of village to village codes, there is no way a genin should be able to answer that question. But they should know that no ordinary genin would have the ability to answer this kind of question, so why put it on the test? What are you playing at, Ibiki?'_

Sasuke bit the end of his pencil as he read over the test and came to the conclusion that he couldn't answer any of the questions. _'Heh well isn't this just great. I can't answer a single one of these,' _he thought with a small shake of his head, _'The only people who even have a chance at answering any of these questions are people like Sakura. On top of that, what's up with the sentinels watching us; it's almost as if…'_

'_They expect us to cheat!' _thought both males of team 7. Sasuke smirked slightly at the intricate trap the proctors had weaved, but pushed that aside as he activated his Sharingan and began scanning the crowd for someone who looked like they knew what they were doing. All around the room, the stronger genin began using different methods to cheat off of the people around them; Kiba and Shino were using their respective animal counterparts to gather answers, while the two Hyuuga's in the room activated their own dojutsu's and began copying from the people around them. Sakura and Shikamaru were using their natural smarts to answer the questions, while Choji's hand moved at the exact same time as Shikamaru's, thanks to the Nara's shadow jutsu. Tenten was using mirrors she had set up beforehand to get the answers and then pass them to Lee. Ino was waiting for Sakura to finish answering the questions before she used her clans mind jutsu to get the answers from her.

'_Hmm, so that's your game Ibiki,' _thought Naruto, _'Well, I might as well make my move before the weaker ones start getting caught.' _Extending his senses, Naruto felt out the chakra levels of everyone in the room, _'Interesting, it seems that quite a few of the younger genin here are more powerful than some of the veteran genin, not quite sure if that is something to be proud of or worried about.' _Filing that little piece of information away for later use, Naruto continued searching for a strong chakra signature that felt out of place amongst the sea of genin. _'Ha, found you,' _looking up from his searching, he glanced at a male 'genin' two rows ahead of him, _'Good job of hiding your sources Ibiki, though you can't get by me that easily. Now for the tricky part…' _Forming a half ram seal under the desk, Naruto placed his right hand over his test, coating it with his chakra. _'This one's for you, mom,' _pushing out with his chakra, the blonde created a small chain of chakra from his palm to the paper. Slowly moving the paper off of the desk and along the floor, Naruto maneuvered the paper so that it was near the disguised chuunin's paper, but still out of sight of everyone else. Using the chakra coated paper as a medium; the blonde genin extended another small chain of chakra from his paper that connected to the chuunin's paper. Waiting until the man looked away from his paper, Naruto instantly swapped the two papers, leaving the chuunin a completely blank test and bringing the completed one back to him. _'My control is improving, it's almost ready to be battle tested,' _the blondes musings stopped as he watched a team of Kusa genin get kicked out, _'Guess all I have to do now is wait.'_

The time passed relatively quickly for the blonde, having lost track of time as he silently meditated. Unbeknownst to Naruto, his fellow rookies had taken notice of his strange behavior and were wondering what had caused the shift in his personality, particularly his fellow blonde, Ino. _'What's up with Naruto? I thought he would have been a nervous wreck the second he found out we would be taking a written test, yet he's as calm as can be. What happened to him, the Naruto I know couldn't sit still for five minutes, let alone almost an entire hour. Well whatever it is, I plan on getting to the bottom of it.' _Her mind made up, the Yamanaka heiress prepared to use her Mind Body Switch Jutsu before Ibiki's gruff voice stopped her midway through the process.

"Alright you brats, pay attention," said Ibiki, "Forty-five minutes have passed so it is time to announce the tenth question! But before we do, I must explain a few extra rules that are unique to the tenth question."

"What?" asked a genin from Suna, "What do you mean unique rules?"

"I mean that these rules are the ones of desperation," he said with a dark chuckle, "Now, the first rule… you must choose whether or not you wish to take the tenth question!"

"Choose?" shouted Temari from the edge of the room, "So what happens if we choose not to take the question? What happens then?"

Ibiki began to chuckle in the back of his throat, a sound that made the genin think they were in the presence of a demon. "What happens then… should you choose not to take the tenth question… your score will be reduced to zero and you and your team will fail!"

"What!? What kind of bullshit is this? If that's the case then of course we'll take the question!"

"You didn't let me finish… should you choose to take the question and you get it wrong… YOU WILL BE BARRED FROM TAKING THE CHUUNIN EXAMS EVER AGAIN!" An unholy silence enveloped the room for a brief moment as everyone processed what the burly jounin had said. That silence was broken by an enraged Kiba standing up and pointing at the scarred jounin.

"What kind of rule is that!? There are plenty of guys here who have taken the exams in the past before!?"

Once again Ibiki began to chuckle in the back of his throat, but this time it escalated into a full blown laugh that had some of the weaker genin ready to run. "Then I guess you all are just unlucky. This year I'm making the rules. But just to prove I can be compassionate, I will give you a way out. Those of you who do not feel confident enough in yourselves can choose not to take the question, and can try again next year. The choice is yours."

The eerie silence returned as the full scope of the situation made itself known to the competitors. Naruto eyes remained closed as he continued his meditation, observing the fluctuations in everyone's chakra. _'Ibiki truly is the best when it comes to psychological warfare. He has almost everyone so rattled that it won't be long before…' _the sensor's thoughts trailed off as the person next to him abruptly stood up.

"I can't… I can't do it! I give up!"

"Alright then, number 50, fail! Number 130 and 111, you fail as well!"

Almost as if a wall had crumbled multiple others began dropping out left and right. Throughout it all, Naruto remained silent, observing all the remaining chakra signatures, waiting for someone else to quit as well. His eyes snapped open when he felt the chakra on his right fluctuate, _'Poor Hinata, she was always a fragile girl, so this kind of mind attack is even harder on her. She's trying to remain brave for her team mates, but the pressure is starting to affect her. Looks like she needs a little boost to make it through this…' _Calling on the traces of his old personality still in his system, Naruto drew a kunai from his pouch and launched it at the jounin, slicing the collar of his jacket.

The remaining genin and sentinels looked on in shock as the rookie genin stood off against the seasoned jounin. "Something you wish to say?" asked Ibiki, covering his surprise at the sudden action.

"Yeah, don't underestimate me. I am a shinobi, and a shinobi never backs down from a challenge. You can try and scare me off all you want, but as long as I still draw breath, I will never give up."

'_This one… is different than the others,' _"Are you sure? This decision will affect the rest of your life."

Naruto merely smirked and crossed his arms, "'Those who stray from the path of justice have no courage, but under the wind of a strong leader, cowardice cannot survive.' Those were the words of the Yondaime Hokage. My dream is to become the Hokage, if I don't have faith in myself to pass this test, then how can I ask the people to have faith in me to protect and lead them? I will stand by my word, for that is my nindo, my ninja way."

Ibiki watched as the fear and worry left the faces of those still present, replaced by a strong conviction to succeed. _'This kid is interesting; he seems to have replaced everyone's worries with a strong determination. Seventy-eight left, more than I expected. But drawing this out would be pointless, after that little speech, all of them seemed to have grown a backbone.' _Looking around at the sentinels, he received a nod from each of them. Nodding himself, he looked back over the assembled genin before his eyes fell on the figure of Naruto once more. His eyes widened slightly as he gazed at the two specters overlapping the boys frame, _'This boy, he has the same power as those two once did. I look forward to seeing where his future leads…'_

"Very well, if all of you are so set on accepting the question, then there is only one thing left to say." To the surprise of the genin present, the scowl that had adorned the man's face ever since his arrival vanished and was replaced by a proud smirk, "Congratulations on passing the first stage of the Chuunin Selection Exams!"

"Wait a second, what about the tenth question?" asked Sakura, voicing the question everyone wanted an answer to.

"There never was a tenth question. Or perhaps you could consider your decision to stay the correct answer to the question."

"Hold on! So what about the other nine question!? Were they pointless!?" shouted Temari.

"You're wrong; the first nine questions did indeed have a purpose. One that they served quite well," Ibiki paused as he reached up and slowly untied his bandana. "They were designed to test your abilities to gather information in an unknown and hostile environment. But just to give you a fighting chance; we had a few chuunin sit in with you to provide a source to cheat off of. But those who cheated poorly, failed because in the shinobi world, there are times when information is more important than life," removing his bandana, everyone was treated to the sight of multiple scars and puncture wounds scattered across the surface of Ibiki's skull, "And during missions and on the battlefield, people risk their very lives to acquire it." Retying his bandana back to his head, Ibiki looked out over the genin one last time, "The first stage of the exams is over, I wish you all luck in the coming stages."

No sooner had the words left his mouth then did a black ball crash through the window. _'Not this again,' _thought Ibiki as the ball unfurled to reveal a banner with a women standing in front of it.

"Alright you brats, listen up! This is no time to be celebrating! I am the proctor for the second exam, Anko Mitarashi! Now follow me to the sight of the second exam! Let's go!" Silence answered the strange kunoichi who had the decency to blush at the awkward atmosphere she had caused.

"You're early Anko… again," said the scarred jounin as he stepped out from behind the banner. Anko's blush deepened slightly at her partner's words, but that was soon replaced by a look of confusion as she counted the number of remaining genin.

"What the hell Ibiki! You let twenty-six teams pass the exam!? I knew this year's first exam was going to be easier, but still!" said the exasperated women as she halfheartedly glared at her partner.

"Or perhaps we just have a good crop of outstanding genin this year. I'd be worried if I were you Anko, your record may be broken this year."

"Yeah right, like that'll happen," said Anko with a dismissive wave of her hand. "Anyway, I hope you brats are ready, because the second stage of the Chuunin Exams begins in exactly half an hour! You have until then to make it to training ground 44! If you don't make it on time you automatically fail! GET MOVING!" she shouted before disappearing in a swirl of leaves, leaving behind the genin to run over each other as they tried to get out the door and find the training ground.

Team 7 however, was frozen in place; they had been ever since Anko's arrival. Each of them had a single thought running through their heads, _'Of all the people that could have been put in charge of the exam, WHY THE HELL DID IT HAVE TO BE HER!?' _The memory of the first time the three genin had been introduced to Anko was still fresh in their minds, as were the nightmares they had about her helping them train for the exams. _'This is so not going to end well,' _they all thought before they resigned themselves to their fate and left the room, praying to kami that they lived through whatever Anko had planned for the second exam.

_Forest of Death- Thirty Minutes Later_

Team 7 stood at the front of the remaining chuunin hopefuls as they awaited Anko to begin explaining the second stage. The thought that the Hokage had appointed Anko of all people to proctor the exam didn't sit well with them. Kakashi had introduced them to the snake user during their week of training, and to put it frankly, it was hell on earth. Normally someone who was supposed to proctor an exam wasn't supposed to help train any genin for fear of them giving up information or showing favoritism, but Anko, in her own words said, she really didn't give a fucking shit what a group of people who couldn't shit right without help said.

So she assisted in their training for a few days. She didn't really teach them any techniques or skills per say, she mainly worked with Sakura, helping, or forcing, the girl to get over her fan girl crush on Sasuke and focus more on her ninja training. When Naruto and Sasuke had found out that Anko had succeeded they had both been immensely relieved; Naruto because now they could truly become a team, and Sasuke because he had one less fan girl to deal with, though it didn't make up for the hundreds still out there.

Anko checked the sun and saw that her thirty minute time frame had come and gone. "Right then, first let me be the first to welcome you brats to training ground forty-four, or as I like to call it… the Forest of Death." Smirking at the frightened expressions of some of the genin, the special jounin opened her jacket slightly, much to the enjoyment of the males, and pulled out a stack of papers. "Now unlike my colleagues test, this one will involve killing. So before I tell you what the exam is you need to sign these waver forms. It simply means that I can't be held responsible in the event of your death, nothing to important."

The members of team 7 all gave a collective sweat drop at the women's attitude towards killing and death. _'I kind of hope this is mostly an act for the exams, like Ibiki, cause if not…' _Naruto didn't even want to finish that thought. Shortly after, every genin had a form and Anko again opened her jacket a little more, once again to the pleasure of the males. This time she pulled out two scrolls, one black, and the other white. Each scroll had a kanji on the outside, one for 'Heaven,' the other for 'Earth.'

"Now I'm not one for boring long winded instructions and details, so I'll make this simple. Each team will receive either a heaven scroll or an earth scroll. Once all the scrolls are passed out, you will report to an assigned gate, where you will enter the forest once I give the signal. Once inside, you all will compete in an all-out scroll battle. Your objective is to reach the tower in the center of the forest within five days' time, with both scrolls in your possession. Now the only real rule is that you can't look at the scrolls, other than that anything goes, killing, maiming, torturing, all of that is fair game. The only stipulation against a team passing is that you must have a complete team in order to pass. So one of you dies, you automatically fail." Putting the two scrolls back into her jacket, the Snake Mistress gave a disturbingly cheery smile to the crowd of genin, "So… any questions?"

"Umm, what happens if we look at the scrolls?" asked a Konoha genin.

Anko began chuckling slightly, unnerving many of the genin present. "If you open the scrolls, well… let's just say it won't be pretty and leave it that, shall we? Now that that's cleared up, everyone fill out your forms, get your scroll and get to your gate. The exam begins on my command."

One by one the teams moved behind the curtained off booth and received their scrolls. Team 7 stood off to the side watching as each team went through and moved towards their gate. "Looks like they're not going to let us know which teams get what scroll, or who's carrying it."

"Are you surprised? They are testing our abilities in a real life situation. The less we know about our enemies, the better in their minds," said Naruto with his arms crossed as they watched Gaara and his siblings enter the booth.

"Yeah, it's just like Ibiki said," Sakura said as she stood up from where she was sitting, "We're risking our lives for information. Everyone here is our enemy now, whether they are from Konoha or not."

"Yeah," said Sasuke with his hands in his pockets, "Judging by the setup of things, it's safe to assume the third stage will be held in the center tower. It wouldn't make sense to have us go all the way out there only to turn and go somewhere else for the next stage."

"Sasuke's right," said Naruto, "And if the exams follow through with tradition, the third stage will be individual matches between the competitors. Which is why, as soon as we are within the forest and out of sight of everyone, we will drop our little act and reveal our true selves."

"Finally," said Sasuke with a smirk, "This genjutsu act of ours was beginning to get a little uncomfortable. It'll be good to test our skills in the field instead of in a spar." Naruto and Sakura nodded in agreement with their dark haired team mate, before all three of them moved toward the booth to receive their scroll. Handing over their forms, they received a heaven scroll, which Naruto placed in his hip pouch.

A few minutes later found the team standing outside of gate twelve, eagerly awaiting the call to start. On the other side of the forest, team 10 was waiting for the exam to begin as well, though in their own unique way. Choji was desperately counting how many bags of chips he had with him, and begging the proctor to postpone the exam so that he could go get more. Shikamaru was mumbling about troublesome things, but mentally he was determining which teams they should target and how they may stack up against them.

Ino's eyes had a far off look to them as her thoughts drifted back to her fellow blonde. Ever since she had inadvertently ended up on his back, she couldn't get what she had felt out of her head. All of the guys from the Academy had been in relatively good shape, with a few exceptions, but Naruto wasn't relatively good, if what she had felt was real, he was fucking ripped! But that wasn't what had gotten to her. No, what she couldn't get out of her head was how warm he was, and how… right it felt to have her arms wrapped around him. _'What the hell is wrong with me? Why can't I get Naruto out of my head; it's not like I like the guy. I love Sasuke!' _but every time she tried to convince herself of that, what Sakura said before the first exam crept into her thoughts. _'Was Forehead right? Have I allowed my skills to suffer because of a crush?' _

The blonde kunoichi was brought out of her thoughts by Anko's voice coming over the speaker. "Alright you brats, the second stage of the Chuunin Exams… begins NOW!" The gates were flung open as the teams swept into the forest, looking for anyone who might have the scroll they needed.

Ino and her team jumped from branch to branch as they moved deeper into the forest. "So what's the plan Shikamaru?" asked Choji. He may have been upset about how many chips he had with him, but he knew when it was time to get serious.

"Let's head for the tower," said the laidback genius, "We can set up an ambush for when the other teams are weak from the forest and take them out. It's troublesome, but it's our best bet at getting the scroll we need."

"Actually Shika," began Ino, "I think we should go find team 7."

"Huh, why's that Ino?" asked Shikamaru, though he had a suspicion it had to do with why she was flustered before the first exam.

"I don't know I just have this feeling that something isn't right about them, especially Naruto. Didn't you notice that during the first exam, Naruto just sat still for the entire time? He didn't look even the slightest bit nervous, even though he was the dead last at the Academy."

"Yeah, I did notice that. Something is up with him, Sasuke and Sakura, and I want to know what. Alright, we'll look for team 7; if we're wrong then at the least we'll have a chance to snatch their scroll." Ino and Choji nodded in agreement with the genius and the three changed direction in search of the enigma that was team 7.

**Well there you have it, what did you think?**

**To those who think Sasuke and Sakura's improvement was way to great given the time frame, allow me to explain a few things. Kakashi is one of the greatest jounin's in Konoha, his students are bound to be trained to the limit. Also, this Kakashi is serious about training team 7, so no 3 to 4 hour days of practice, instead some long, hard days with intense training. Also, starting next chapter, I will be posting character stats at the end of each chapter to make things a little clearer and show that none of them are suddenly jumping in skills and abilities.**

**Until next time,**

**BSW  
**


	3. Chapter 3

**Well, here's the next chapter of Unmasked, I hope you all enjoy it. On a personal note as an author, I have to say I was a little disappointed at the amount of reviews the last chapter received, but I suppose that is to be expected with new stories. Most of you have probably already figured this out, but this story will be a Naruto/Ino fic. To those who were hoping I would restart Nine Beast, I am sorry to say that I have just lost the spark and drive to continue it. As I am a huge fan of this paring, I decided to write another story and incorporate it for my personal satisfaction and enjoyment.**

**Now I think I've said enough, on to the story.**

**I own nothing, as always.**

**Chapter 3- A Snake in the Grass**

Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura were jumping through the dense foliage of the forest, moving faster than the average genin team should be able to. It was an hour after the exam had begun and so far the only enemies they had come across was a lone Ame-nin who tried to capture Naruto and infiltrate the team. That had failed spectacularly thanks to Naruto sensing the ninja before he even had a chance to prepare. "Guys, there's a clearing up ahead, we'll stop and plan our next move there," said Naruto as he jumped down into the clearing, his team mates close behind. "This should be far enough. Sakura, go ahead and drop the genjutsu, the nearest person is over a hundred yards away."

Nodding in acknowledgement, Sakura formed the ram seal and disrupted her chakra flow, "Kai." The air around the team shimmered slightly as the cloaking genjutsu faded, revealing team 7 for whom they really were. Naruto was wearing the same outfit he had when he removed his mask of an idiot, but Sasuke and Sakura's clothes of choice had changed during their week of training.

Sasuke had replaced the traditional Uchiha clan clothing for a black, one-piece version of the clothing, with the Uchiha crest emblazoned across the back. His left hand was wrapped in bandages with numerous dark blue arm belts adorning it. He also had similar belts wrapped around both of his legs.

Sakura now wore a modified version of her usual qipao dress. She had on a red top with a white circle design on the back, along with black, skin tight shorts. She had a grey skirt over the shorts with shin high boots with a slight heel replacing the standard blue shinobi sandals. A pair of elbow length black gloves with the symbol of the medical corps on them covered her hands. She had followed in Naruto's footsteps and replaced her usual blue headband cloth with a red one that complimented her hair.

Before the three genin had a chance to plan, Naruto's eyes widened as he sensed a massive chakra signature heading for them, fast. "Were about to have company. But there is no way this guy is a genin, he has as much chakra as the Hokage." Sasuke and Sakura stiffened at this; if someone with that kind of power was looking for them, then they were in trouble.

"What the hell is someone like that doing these exams? Shouldn't someone have noticed them before now?" asked Sasuke as he activated his Sharingan and saw the dark, ominous chakra the person moving towards them had. "Whoever they are, their chakra isn't normal, it feels almost…"

"Evil," finished Naruto. _'There is only person I know of that could have that kind of chakra and if he's in the village… We have to warn the Hokage somehow.' _"We need to try and buy ourselves some time. Let's make some clones and see if we can learn anything about this guy." Forming his signature cross hand seal, a single shadow clone appeared next to him. Sasuke and Sakura were quick to follow his lead, though they each made a Raiton Shadow Clone and a Doton Shadow Clone respectively. The clones transformed so that they looked like the three had before dispelling the genjutsu while the originals hid in the trees at a safe distance to observe their new enemy.

A few seconds passed before a powerful blast of wind passed through the clearing. The two elemental clones managed to hold their ground from the attack, but Naruto's clone was swept away by the wind, dispelling once it collided with a tree. "Damn, not good. That was a high powered Fuuton technique, if he can use jutsu of that caliber we'll have a serious fight on our hands," Sasuke said as he observed the damage caused with his Sharingan.

"He's here," whispered Naruto as a figure slowly began to rise out of the ground. It was an older looking Kusa-nin wearing a straw hat, but that was the only normal thing about him. He was emitting large amounts of killing intent that had the two clones shaking in fear. "We can't take this guy head on; our only hope is the element of surprise. Sakura, disrupt his footing and Sasuke and I will attack while he's off balance."

"Got it," said Sakura as she jumped down to the ground as silently as possible while forming hand seals. "Doton: Tearing Earth Turning Palm," when her hands touched the ground, the earth around the Kusa shinobi began to break and spiral in on itself.

Not expecting such a response from a team of genin, the disguised Orochimaru was forced to jump towards one of the trees to avoid being crushed. Unfortunately for him, the branch he was about to land on exploded, launching him through the air towards a waiting Sasuke. _'What the…' _thought the man as he looked over his shoulder at the last Uchiha, _'It seems that they are more skilled than I gave them credit for.'_

Sasuke took out two handfuls of shuriken and threw them in a wide arc at the airborne shinobi. The lethal stars crossed paths in front of the long haired shinobi and only then did he realize that they were being guided by wires. Pulling on the wires, Sasuke manipulated them so that they completely ensnared his enemy, preventing him from escaping. Clenching the wires in his teeth, the dark haired genin sped through a series of hand seals, ending in the tiger seal. _'Katon: Dragon Fire Jutsu,' _fire erupted from Sasuke's mouth and travelled along the wire towards the bound shinobi.

'_Impressive Sasuke-kun, but still rather predicable…' _the trapped man's thoughts halted as he saw Naruto appear next to Sasuke, already finishing his own set of seals.

"Fuuton Stream," Naruto exhaled a concentrated blast of wind from his mouth that easily caught up to the flames and more than tripled their speed and intensity. The two boys waited in anticipation as the flames consumed their target. They knew that it wouldn't be that easy to defeat someone with so much power, and so were already preparing for the counter they knew was coming.

A massive spike of chakra emanated from the flames, dispersing them and revealing the charred body of the Kusa ninja. The man began chuckling as his body seemed to just slighter out of the wire binding him. In a blur of speed that even Sasuke's Sharingan couldn't follow, the man appeared across from the two boys on the branch. Whirling around to face their opponent, Naruto and Sasuke saw that part of the man's face seemed to have simply melted off, revealing pale white skin with a yellow snake like eye. "Kukuku, I must admit, you caught me by surprise with your level of skill, but now I believe it is time for me to see what you are really capable of. Come Sasuke-kun, Naruto-kun, entertain me!" he said, his voice becoming an excited cackle at the end.

The two boys' shivered at the man's insane tone but knew they didn't have much of a choice. They each fell into their respective taijutsu stances and charged the man, Sasuke going for a low sweep while Naruto spun to deliver a roundhouse kick to the man's head.

All the while, the partially revealed Orochimaru merely smirked, not bothering with defending himself. However, just before the two kicks were about to connect, his hands blurred and he let loose a strong wind that blew the two genin off of the branch they were standing on. Smirking to himself, Orochimaru walked towards where the two had fallen; only to receive a chakra enhanced punch to the face from Sakura. _'This strength, it's almost comparable to Tsunade's when she first began developing her super strength!' _thought the rogue Sannin as he got up from where he had landed, only to see that the genin had regrouped. _'That girl, she has more potential than Tsunade did at her age, but even more worrisome is their teamwork. If this is what they are capable of now, than given the proper training, these three could easily surpass we of the Sannin! Kukuku, I knew Sasuke-kun would entertain me, but I never imagined all three of them would provide me with such a challenge.'_

"Well, well, I must say that was quite unexpected, but now it is time for me to take what I came for." The three genin's eyes widened as the man blurred towards them, kicking Sakura away before she had a chance to react. Sasuke attempted to strike the man with a kick to the head, but he blocked it with ease. Grabbing ahold of the leg, Orochimaru threw the last Uchiha into another tree and watched as he collapsed on one of the branches.

Naruto jumped away from the man and weaved hand seals as fast as he could. Orochimaru wasn't about to let him have the chance to attack and extended his tongue to wrap around the boys ankle. Naruto cursed as he was swung into a thick branch, only to be pulled back towards the man who had a kunai poised to kill him. Orochimaru smirked as he plunged the kunai into Naruto's heart to the screams of his team mates. _'I had hoped he might be able to escape, he was proving to be quite interesting. Oh well, now to do what I came here for…'_

Letting the lifeless body fall to the ground below, the pale man turned to where he had left Sasuke. The boy was attempting to stand so that he could avenge his fallen comrade, but Orochimaru had other plans. Forming the seal for his juinjutsu, his neck elongated to impossible lengths and moved to bite Sasuke at the base of his neck.

"Suiton: Water Splitting Wave!" a pressurized stream of water cut through one of the trees and moved to sever the elongated neck of the Sannin. Living up to his reputation, Orochimaru managed to replace himself with a log at the last second; the log didn't stand a chance as the water sliced clean through it. Naruto appeared in front of Sasuke, to the relief of his team mates and mild shock of Orochimaru.

Looking over where he thought he had dropped Naruto's body, Orochimaru found nothing but a puddle of water. "So you managed to replace yourself with a water clone, despite being thrown around like a rag doll and with no available water source nearby. I must admit Naruto-kun, I am impressed."

Naruto frowned as he starred at the Sannin, "Thanks, it's not every day one receives a compliment from one of the Sannin, _Orochimaru."_ Sasuke and Sakura, who had moved back to her team mate's looked at Naruto in shock before turning their eyes to the chuckling person across from them.

"You are well informed, Naruto-kun," said the man as he reached up and pulled off the rest of his face, revealing the pale visage of the Snake Sannin. "I am indeed Orochimaru, one of the legendary three ninja."

"Why are you here? What do you have to gain by attacking us?"

"Kukuku, what I want is quite simple," said the rogue ninja. Team 7's eyes all widened when the Orochimaru in front of them turned into a pile of mud. Naruto spun around when he heard Sasuke scream in pain, just in time to see Orochimaru's neck retract after biting into Sasuke's neck. Sasuke collapsed in pain as Sakura tried what she could to heal the wound on his neck and ease the pain. "There, now Sasuke will seek me out for power. But before that, I wish you well in these exams. Watching how you three fair will be most entertaining for me." Pulling out the earth scroll that team 7 needed to pass the exam, Orochimaru threw it to Naruto who caught it. "Consider that a token of my appreciation. Oh and when he awakens, tell Sasuke-kun that I will be waiting for him."

Naruto cursed as the man disappeared into the branch the same way he had arrived. Looking down at his fallen team mate, Naruto sighed and pocketed the scroll before picking Sasuke up and putting him over his shoulder. "Come on Sakura, we're too vulnerable out here in the open. Let's find a place to set up camp and take a closer look at what that bastard did to Sasuke." Sakura nodded and the two conscious genin jumped away to find shelter.

Night had fallen over training ground forty-four as the competitors of the Chuunin Exams continued to wage battle against one another. Naruto was sitting against a thick tree root as Sakura was doing a field check on Sasuke. He had the earth scroll Orochimaru had given them clutched in his right hand as he tried to figure out the rogue ninja's motives. _'What the hell could he be planning? If the reason he attacked us was so that he could place that mark on Sasuke, then why not just kill Sakura and I to make it easier for him? Not to mention,' _he glanced at the scroll in his hand, _'Why would he seemingly help us to pass this exam? Ugh, nothing makes sense!'_

He was brought out of his confusing thoughts by Sakura shaking his shoulder, "Hey Sakura, how's Sasuke doing?" Sakura frowned as she sat next to him. Over the week they had trained together, she had learned a lot more about her blonde team mate, one of which he was always aware of his surroundings, not letting his guard down that often. For him to be so lost in thought that he didn't sense her next to him meant that something was really wrong.

"He's fine, he is still in a little pain, but it's passing quickly. He's running a slight fever, but it's nothing life threatening." Her frown deepened when she saw him nod almost absentmindedly. _'Something is really wrong.' _"Naruto, what's wrong? We're team mates, you know you can tell me anything," she said, trying to coax him into talking and getting whatever was bugging him off his mind.

Naruto sighed, his gaze once more turning to the scroll in his hand, "It's just… I don't understand what his motive for attacking us could have been. It's obvious he wanted to place that mark on Sasuke, but then why didn't he simply kill the two of us and do it right from the start? It's not like he didn't have the power or skill to do so…" Sakura placed her hand over the one he held the scroll with, encouraging him to continue. She could tell there was something more than what he was letting on. She knew that Orochimaru was part of the reason he was like this, as she had been having similar thoughts, but there was something else that was bothering him.

"Naruto," she began, leaning forward so she could look at him directly, "I know that you're bothered by what happened, I am too, but I can tell there's more to it than that. So please, tell me what's really bothering you."

Looking into her emerald eyes, Naruto couldn't help the small smirk that spread across his lips. No matter how he tried, Sakura always seemed to be able to read them like a book when she wanted to. Looking away from her, Naruto absently scanned the tree tops around them for any signs of enemies. "It's just… I feel like I should be better than this. I let you and Sasuke down because of my inability to protect you guys when it mattered. I just… I feel like there is something wrong with me, that I'm not as good as I should be. When I was being trained by my godfather, I was always able to respond and adapt to whatever situation he threw at me… but now, I feel like there is something preventing me from using my skills to their truest extent, but I just can't seem to figure out what it is."

Sakura felt her heart clench at seeing her team mate so torn up over this. She had seen him fight against Kakashi and Sasuke multiple times in spars and he always held his own and more often than not won against their team mate. Though they were completely outmatched, she didn't see anything wrong with him during their fight with Orochimaru. In fact he had fared better than either her or Sasuke for that matter, but despite that, he still felt like he hadn't done enough. "Naruto," she whispered as she watched him stare off into nowhere, "I don't understand why you're acting like this, you handled yourself better than all of us against Orochimaru, but you are my team mate and I'll do my best to try and help you through it however I can." Not really thinking about it, Sakura leaned up and gave him a light kiss on his whiskered cheek. Finally, it seemed that the adrenaline she had been running on had run its course, as Sakura closed her eyes and laid her head on Naruto's shoulder. "Sasuke should be fine for now, wake me up if anything changes," she mumbled before finally succumbing to the blissful grip of sleep.

Naruto looked at the sleeping form of Sakura and felt a smile form on his face. Her words repeated themselves over and over in his mind as he wrapped his arm around her shoulders. _'Team mates,' _he thought wistfully, _'That's what you always tried to teach me; Jiraiya-sensei, but I never truly took your teachings to heart. But now,' _he looked back down at the young girl sleeping against him and over to the prone form of Sasuke, _'I finally understand what you were trying to tell me. If I truly wish to be strong, I must be willing to put my life on the line in order to protect those that are precious to me; heh, looks like I finally caught up to you, Haku. I understand what you meant now, and I swear that I will do everything in my power to live up to your legacy. I will protect my precious people… no matter the cost.' _His mind finally clear, Naruto drifted off into a light sleep, his smile never leaving.

In the shadows of a large tree overlooking the clearing team 7 was resting in, three people were watching them, waiting for their time to strike. "So we finally found him…" said the bandaged leader of the group. He was hunched over slightly with a fur pelt covering his back. His sleeves were extremely long, covering his hands and concealing the device he wore. "As Orochimaru-sama commanded, we attack at daybreak. Our target is Sasuke Uchiha."

"But if the other two get in our way we can kill them right?" asked his team mate. He wore a beige shirt that had the kanji for 'Death' printed on the front three times. He also had a snake pattern scarf around his neck, a trait he shared with both of his team mates.

"Of course," replied the bandaged genin as they retreated into the shadows to await the rising of the sun.

_With Team Guy_

"The sun will be rising soon," said Neji Hyuuga as he sat with his team at the base of a large tree. "Most of the teams will be resting now, so we'll attack as planned. We'll split up and scout the area. Even if we don't find another team, we meet back here in exactly thirty minutes, understand?" he asked, throwing a kunai into the ground in-between the three genin.

"Got it," said Tenten with a smile.

"Roger," said Lee with an over the top salute.

"Alright then… go!" the three genin leapt away into the foliage around them, searching for potential targets.

_Sunrise- Second Day of Exam_

The first rays of sunlight flittered into the grove team 7 was resting in, hitting the face of Sakura and waking her up. Groaning slightly as she set up, the pinkette couldn't help the small smile when she saw both of her team mates resting peacefully. Naruto was leaning against the root he had claimed ever since they arrived at the grove, while Sasuke seemed to have finally settled down during the night. Her smile disappeared however when she heard a rustling in the bushes across from the grove. Pulling a kunai to defend with, Sakura waited for the person to reveal themselves.

She left out a breath when a squirrel came out of the bushes and scampered towards the grove. _'No,'_ she threw her kunai just in front of the squirrel, scaring the small animal away, _'That was a close one.'_

"She's observant," said Zaku as he and his team stood on the tree overlooking the clearing, "She manage to notice the paper bomb on the squirrel."

"No… that's not it…" mumbled Dosu as he surveyed the clearing with his lone eye.

"What do you mean Dosu?" asked Zaku.

"We'll probably find out when we get closer," the mummy man mused, "So… let's go." The three leapt from their position in the tree and landed on the opposite side of the clearing, causing Sakura's head to snap towards them. "Well you seem to be somewhat awake. No matter, wake Sasuke Uchiha, we want to fight him."

'_So they finally show themselves,' _thought Naruto, not showing any signs that he was awake. _'A lot of people seem to be after Sasuke, that can't be a coincidence. These guys are probably connected to Orochimaru in some way, but they are nowhere near as strong as I expected them to be. Sakura, how will you handle this situation?'_ he thought as he focused his senses so that he could feel everything within the clearing.

_With Lee_

Lee leapt across the branches at high speed, his eyes darting around for the slightest sign of any other teams. He stopped on a branch when he saw a small flurry of leaves falling to the ground. _'If I can catch all twenty of these leaves before they reach the ground, I will one day find love! But should I fail, I will forever remain single.' _A strange fire appeared in the green clad genin's eyes as he launched himself towards the ground, his hands a blur as he grabbed the leaves out of the air.

As he was reaching for the last leaf, he noticed a squirrel squirming on the ground trying to get the lit paper bomb off its back. Faster than many could see, Lee picked up the squirrel and crumpled the bomb in his fist, extinguishing it. "Phew, made it in time," he sighed as he sat up and threw the useless bomb away, "Who would do something so horrible as to put something like this on an innocent creature like you?" As if it could understand him, the squirrel turned towards the direction it had come and began squeaking loudly. "So they are that way. Show me the way my little friend, they should pay for doing something so unyouthful."

_With Team 7 and Oto team_

Sakura was thinking along the same lines as Naruto and decided to try and get some answers from them. "I know Orochimaru is behind this, so tell me what is his reason for being in our village?"

The three Oto genin's face registered shock at the question, but it was quickly replaced by ones of confusion. "Hmm, I wonder what Orochimaru-sama is thinking," mumbled Dosu aloud as his single eye narrowed in suspicion.

"It doesn't matter, but seeing as you know so much, we can't let you go alive. You two hang back, I'll kill this girl, and then I'll kill her two pathetic team mates."

"Wait, Zaku," said Dosu as he walked forward to where Sakura's kunai was sticking out of the ground. "You aren't very good at this are you? Recently overturned stones, different colors of dirt and grass where it doesn't normally grow. Booby traps are only effective if they go unnoticed, too bad you won't be alive long enough to use that knowledge." Dosu and his team mates jumped high above the clearing, planning on coming at Sakura from above to finish her off.

Sakura smirked as she cut a wire next to her and a giant log swung down towards the airborne genin. "Another trap above? As if we would fall for such a basic ploy," said Dosu as he placed his uncovered right hand on the log while forming a half ram seal with his left. The log was blasted in half by the sound waves emanating from his gauntlet, but it served its purpose for Sakura as two clones appeared above the three. "What!?"

"Doton: Earth-Style Wall," the two clones cheeks swelled before they expelled a stream of mud, forming a circle around the opposing genin. The mud rose and solidified into a wall of earth, trapping the Oto ninja inside it. The two clones landed on top of the wall and began going through hand seals again, but Dosu wasn't going to give them the chance to finish. Placing his right hand on the wall, he once more used the sound vibrations of his gauntlet to shatter the earth, while Kin and Zaku dispatched the clones with kunai.

'_His attacks must utilize some kind of vibrations, that's the only way he could have destroyed that log and my wall.' _Sakura's thoughts were halted as the three once again launched themselves towards her, ready to end it. Before any of them had a chance to react, a green blur appeared and kicked the three foreign genin away with a powerful spin kick. _'Wait, isn't that…'_

"Who are you?" asked Dosu as he stood up and looked at the strange new comer.

"I am the Beautiful Green Beast of Konoha, Rock Lee!" he said as he took the opening stance for his Goken taijutsu.

This time it was Sakura who asked the question, "Why are you here?" she was slightly relieved at the boy's arrival, but still, it seemed a little too perfect for her liking.

"I was following a little friend of mine when I saw your fight. Though we may be competitors in this exam, we are still both Konoha ninja. I will not allow one of my comrades to fight alone, especially not one as beautiful as you." Lee said with a small blush as he looked back at Sakura.

"Thanks for the compliment, but I believe we have more pressing matters to deal with," said Sakura as she drew another kunai and got into a stance in front of her team mates.

"Yosh, then let us end this," said Lee as he turned back to the Oto genin, a fierce determination in his eyes.

'_He seems to be quite advanced in taijutsu, it will be interesting to see how he deals with my attack,' _thought Dosu as he uncovered his right arm and ran towards the two Konoha genin. Sakura reacted instantly and threw her kunai, which Dosu jumped over. Rearing his arm back, the bandaged Oto-nin prepared his attack, but before he could, Lee punched his arm straight into the ground and pulled up a massive tree root with his bare hands.

'_That's some impressive strength he has there,' _thought Naruto, still keeping up his façade of being asleep. _'I definitely look forward to testing my skills against his in the future. However, he and Sakura are still at a disadvantage, in seems these Oto guys use sound based techniques. Not something that is easily defended against, I just might have to intervene if things get out of hand. Especially if those three don't try and help.'_

Unknown to everyone but Naruto, team 10 had arrived just as the Oto team began their attack and to say they were surprised would be an understatement. "Since when has Sakura of all people been so good?" questioned Shikamaru as he and Choji watched the fight with wide eyes. Ino didn't hear her team mates question as she was currently lost in thought, memories of her past with Sakura surfacing, as well as what Sakura had said to her before the first exam. _'Is this what she meant by wanting to protect those she cares for? Sakura, have I truly fallen so far behind you?'_

'_Guy-sensei, please forgive me, but I must use that technique,' _thought Lee as he unraveled the bandages around his arms. _'Sakura-san has not fully recovered from her sleep; I will have to handle the brunt of the fighting.'_

"I don't know what you're planning, but it won't work!" said Dosu as he raised his gauntlet to strike once again. Lee crouched down as the Oto-nin moved to strike him, but before he had a chance, Lee vanished in an intense burst of speed. "He vanished!?"

Lee appeared beneath the bandaged genin and sent him flying with a powerful upward thrust kick. Dosu could do nothing as his limp body flew higher into the air, but sadly, the green clad genin wasn't finished with him. Appearing underneath the genin, the bandages of Lee's arms wrapped around him, preventing Dosu from countering. Grabbing ahold of his now trapped opponent, the two began to spin at high speed as they fell to the ground head first. "Take this… Front Lotus!"

"Not good, Dosu can't defend himself like that!" said Zaku as he flashed through hand seals. Burying both of his hands underground, the spiky haired genin released a wave of pressurized air that softened the earth where the two would land. Lee jumped away from his victim just before he impacted with the ground, watching as Dosu crashed into the now softened dirt. His eye's, along with Sakura's and team 10's widened when Dosu shakily stood up from the attack. "Looks like I made it in time," smirked Zaku as he pulled his hands out of the ground.

"What a terrifying technique," said Dosu as he shook his head, "To cause this amount of damage to my body even though I landed on this soft dirt. But it seems that it also took its toll on you as well, so now it's my turn."

'_Damn my body hasn't fully recovered yet,' _thought Lee as he forced both of his arms up to block the incoming strike. It wasn't necessary however, as a wall of earth rose up, absorbing the impact of the blow as well as the vibrations. _'What? Who did…'_

"Sorry for taking so long Lee-san, but I'm finally back to full strength," said Sakura as she stood up from her crouched position. "I can tell that technique has a drawback to its use, so now it's your turn to rest while I'll fight."

"Bold words for a weak little girl," said Zaku with a cruel smirk, "It won't take us long to finish you off, but I think we'll torture you a little bit. Now Kin!" Sakura's eyes widened as Kin appeared behind her and grabbed onto her hair, holding her in place.

"My, my, your hair has so much more luster than mine. You may have a few impressive techniques, but you're still a pathetic excuse for a kunoichi." The Oto kunoichi tightened her grip on Sakura's hair, forcing her to her knees, "Zaku, kill this bitches team mates in front of her. Let her see just how pathetic she really is."

Zaku chuckled as he walked towards the still sleeping Sasuke while Naruto prepared to make his move. Just as he was about to respond, Naruto felt a shift in Sakura's chakra and stayed his hand, _'It's time that Sakura proved she is a capable kunoichi.'_

Zaku raised his hand towards Naruto and Sasuke, "Decapitating Airwaves!" A pressurized blast of wind was expelled from the holes in his palm, moving to finish off the two Konoha genin. An explosion rocked the clearing as the attack made contact, causing Zaku to smirk while team 10 couldn't believe what they had just seen. However, the sight that greeted everyone when the dust settled was not what they were expecting. Naruto and Sasuke were completely unharmed with a pile of destroyed earth lying in front of them. "What? Kin I thought you had her!"

As the two shinobi from Otogakure looked towards their team mate, they saw that she was clutching her stomach with a tuft of pink hair in her right hand. _'She cut her hair!' _thought Zaku in realization before he was forced to jump away from falling ax kick that left a small crater on the ground.

Sakura, her hair barely reaching her shoulders, pulled out a kunai with a paper bomb attached to it and threw it at the two genin. "Stupid girl, why can't you just learn to stay down?" shouted Zaku as he blasted the kunai away, just before the bomb exploded. Sakura jumped back so she was standing in front of the still recovering Lee and her resting team mates. Her eyes widened though as multiple senbon pierced her leg and shoulder joints, forcing her to fall to the ground in pain.

"That was for that punch you worthless swine," said Kin, her breathing still labored as she jumped over to her team mates. "Zaku, finish all of them off in one fell swoop. It's time we stopped playing around."

"Fine by me," he said as he raised his arms to strike again, but was forced to stop as a hail of kunai came out of the bushes. "What now?" Team 10 appeared in front of the downed team 7 and Lee, frowns adorning their faces. "Give me a break, these guys keep popping up like cockroaches!"

"Ino," said Sakura as she looked up from trying to heal her injuries.

"Hey Sakura, you didn't think I would let you have all the fun did you?" said the blonde kunoichi as she looked down at her one time friend. "I understand what you meant now Sakura, and now I'm going to protect someone I care about."

"Protect them? How do you plan to protect those weaklings when you can't even protect yourselves! Decapitating Airwaves!" once again a blast of pressurized air headed towards the assembled Konoha ninja.

"Choji, now!"

"Multi-size Jutsu!" Choji's body expanded till he resembled a large ball with limbs. Retracting his limbs into his body, the Akimichi heir began to roll towards the oncoming attack at speeds that betrayed his size. "Human Bullet Tank," the two attacks met head on, but due to his rotation, Choji was able to push through it.

"Air pressure is useless so long as he has that momentum, Zaku move!" shouted Dosu as he moved to attack with his melody arm again. His body froze however as Shikamaru made his move.

"Shadow Imitation Jutsu, complete," said the Nara heir, "You're not going anywhere pal."

"Grrrr, Kin kill them!" said Zaku as he continued to dodge the rolling form of Choji. Kin nodded and prepared multiple senbon before she felt herself losing control of her body. "Kin, what the hell is wrong with you?"

"Kin's not in right now, and unless you surrender your scroll and leave, she dies!" said Ino from inside Kin, pulling out a kunai and putting it to her throat for emphasis. Neither of the two Oto shinobi said anything, but Zaku smirked as he jumped away from Choji and aimed at Kin's body. _'He isn't…'_

"Decapitating Airwaves!" all of the Konoha shinobi could only look on in horrid realization as the Ino possessed Kin was blasted into a tree.

"Ino get out of there!" shouted Shikamaru when he noticed the blood dripping from the mouth of Ino's real body. Seeing that their usual strategy wasn't going to work, Ino exited Kin's body and returned to her own. "What kind of people would willingly sacrifice their own team mate?"

"You don't get it do you," said Dosu, "Our objective in this forest is not to pass some pathetic test; it's to kill Sasuke Uchiha." As he finished Shikamaru's shadow retracted and he found himself able to move again, "Ah, so it seems five minutes is the limit to your technique; now then, to end this little game of ours. Zaku, do it!" he said as he flicked his gauntlet and focused the sound wave to attack the five downed Konoha ninja.

"No mistakes this time… Extreme Decapitating Airwave!" a massive blast of pressurized air, twice as powerful as the usual ones merged and amplified the sound waves as they neared their targets.

'_I've seen enough,' _thought Naruto as he moved to intercept the combined technique. A massive cloud of dust and debris was kicked up from the attack, obscuring the place where the attack hit.

"Heh that takes care of that" said Zaku as he moved towards the unconscious form of Kin. "Let's get out of here and report back to Orochimaru-sama, our mission is complete."

Dosu nodded as the two moved to leave the clearing before a new voice rang out. "Leaving so soon? The fun is just beginning." The two Oto shinobi whirled around as the last of the dust settled down, revealing the results of their attack. Naruto stood in front of his fellow Konoha genin, all of whom were astonished that the blonde had managed to the stop the powerful attack. Sakura smiled as she watched Naruto face off against the two remaining enemies. She didn't know what caused it, but she could tell that something had changed within her team mate and it had only made him that much stronger.

Ino could only stare at the blonde shinobi as he stood directly in front of her. The power he was exuding was almost too much for her budding abilities as a sensor, but instead of overwhelming her, his power almost seemed to envelop her, protecting her. Her body involuntarily shivered at the feeling his power gave off and she felt her own chakra being drawn to his, almost as if the two were connected. _'What… what is this feeling? Is… this Naruto? But when did he get so powerful?'_

"Impossible," muttered Dosu as he looked at the blonde with fear in his eyes. _'To be able to stop an attack of that magnitude… we must retreat, we are no match for him!' _"Zaku, we're leaving, now!"

"I don't think so," said Naruto before he blurred forward and kicked Zaku in the stomach, causing him to double over. "You threatened my team mates and my comrades; that is something I will never forgive." Grabbing the spiky haired boy by the scarf, the blonde shinobi threw him into the air before flashing through hand seals. "Suiton: Water Bullet Jutsu," kneading chakra in his stomach, Naruto expelled a powerful torrent of water from his mouth towards the airborne Zaku.

Still dazed from the kick, Zaku could do nothing to defend himself and received the full force of the attack. The torrent forced him even higher into the air and he collided painfully against the trunk of a tree. Naruto ended his technique and turned to see Dosu attempting to attack from his blind spot. Grabbing the edge of the top scroll on his back, Naruto jumped away from Oto genin and unrolled it slightly, causing a cloud of smoke to appear. Dosu tried to see threw the smoke, but it proved to be futile. His eyes flickered to Zaku who had just landed on his left arm with a loud snap. His small moment of inattention would cost him however as Naruto appeared in front of him, a katana in hand.

Dosu's eyes widened as he tried to get away, but Naruto was faster. His blade met its mark and sliced Dosu's right arm off at the elbow, removing his melody arm. Dosu gasped in pain as he jumped over to Zaku's twitching form. _'This is different; he is much more powerful than the others,' _"Wait," he said when he saw Naruto moving to finish him. He pulled out his teams earth scroll and placed it on the ground, slowly backing away from the blonde, "Take it and let us leave. We are in no shape to continue fighting you."

Naruto glared at the mummified man, but nodded in acceptance. Dosu sighed as he used his stump of an arm to hold up Zaku while throwing Kin over his shoulder with the other. Not wanting to give the blonde genin a chance to change his mind, Dosu immediately jumped away.

Sighing, Naruto resealed his katana back into his scroll before picking up the scroll Dosu had left. Turning to head back towards his fellow Konoha shinobi, he noticed Sakura had finally managed to treat her own wounds and had started helping Lee with his. Shikamaru and Choji were sitting on the ground resting, though they didn't really need it. Ino however, hadn't moved at all. She was still standing in the place she had been since Naruto appeared and was staring at her fellow blonde with mixture of emotions. Wonder, gratitude, shock and a small trace of lust, all flittered across Ino's eyes, causing Naruto to smile slightly at the effect he had on her.

Truth was he wasn't as oblivious to the fairer sex as he seemed to be. He had Jiraiya to thank for that, the man had done everything he could to get Naruto to follow the ways of the pervert, but he always refused. That didn't mean he didn't learn a great deal about women during his time with his godfather. He had learned to appreciate a female's body and looks, but he was just much more subtle about it than the self-proclaimed super pervert. He had noticed early on that Sakura, Hinata and Ino all had the makings of future ravishing beauties, but there was something about his fellow blonde that intoxicated him.

Pushing those thoughts aside, Naruto walked over to the blonde kunoichi, "Hey Ino, you alright?"

Ino almost collapsed into a pile of mush at the sound of Naruto's deepening voice. Composing herself as best she could, Ino nodded the affirmative to her fellow blonde. "Y-yeah, but shouldn't I be the one asking you that question? You just took on those two all by yourself."

Chuckling slightly Naruto shook his head, "It's ok Ino, and I'm fine, see? Not a scratch on me." Ino absently nodded as her eyes traveled up and down Naruto's body. Now that he was close to her, she could clearly see the hard muscles all along his body. _'Oh my god, he really is ripped!' _thought Ino with a little bit of drool coming out of the corner of her mouth. "Ino, what scroll do you guys need to pass this exam?"

"O-oh, uh, we need an earth scroll," she said, pulling out her teams heaven scroll. Naruto smiled that heart melting smile of his that Ino was slowly becoming addicted to and handed her the earth scroll the Oto team had left. "Why are you giving us this scroll? Don't you need it?"

"No, we already have both of our scrolls. Besides, consider it a thank you for helping Sakura even when you didn't have to." Shooting her one last smile, Naruto made his way over to the rest of the genin in the clearing. "How's everyone doing? Any major injuries?" he already knew that none of them had been seriously hurt because he had been watching the battle, but he didn't want to give away the fact that he was a sensor just yet. _'Although if I did I could probably help Ino develop her sensory abilities.'_

"No, we're good," said Shikamaru as he laid back on the ground and looked up at the tree tops, "It may have been troublesome, but at least we held those guys off long enough for you to 'wake up' from your nap."

'_So he did notice,' _thought Naruto, "Well you guys have my thanks, and you don't have to worry about getting another scroll from a different team. They left us an earth scroll and I gave it to Ino, you guys are all set."

"Gee, thanks Naruto," said Choji in-between bites of chips. _'Where the hell did he get that?'_ thought Naruto with a sweat drop, _'Ah whatever.'_

Turning his attention to the green clad genin Sakura was still healing, another smile appeared on Naruto's face. "Lee, right?" he asked getting a nod from the boy, "Well Lee, you have my thanks for assisting Sakura, now I believe your team is here for you." Looking up to one of the multiple branches above the clearing, Naruto locked eyes with Neji Hyuuga. Everyone followed his gaze and was surprised at the appearance of the two genin.

'_How did he sense our presence from this distance?' _thought Neji in mild surprise, though his face remained set in a frown. "Lee, it is time to go. We have business to attend to."

Lee stood up from where Sakura had been treating him and flashed the pinkette a gracious smile, "Thank you for healing me Sakura-san." Turning to Naruto, Lee struck what everyone would later learn was his signature 'Nice guy' pose, "Naruto, my youthful friend, it was an honor to meet you. I hope that one day we may be allowed to test our skills against one another, but for now this is goodbye. Until next we meet, my eternal rival."

Naruto chuckled nervously at that, having heard stories from Kakashi about his own 'eternal rival.' "Y-yeah, eternal rivals; and I also look forward to the day we may face one another. It would be an honor to test myself against someone such as you." Lee gained a fire in his eyes as he shouted about the 'Flames of Youth' before Tenten finally manage to drag him out of the clearing, "Well that was disturbing."

"You can say that again," said a familiar voice from inside the grove. Everyone turned to see Sasuke walking towards them looking back to normal, if a little tired. Sakura was next to him in a flash, running a quick diagnostic to see if he was truly ready to be moving yet. Once she gave the all clear, Naruto turned to the gathered team 10.

"You know, since both of our teams already have the scroll we need to pass, why don't we travel together? Most of the people here will think twice about attacking two teams at once." Sasuke and Sakura nodded in agreement with their blonde team mate. Having team 10 along would greatly reduce their chance of getting attacked and even if some of the competitors were stupid enough to try and attack six genin, it would be that much easier to defeat them.

Shikamaru saw the logic in the idea as well, but he knew that if he volunteered them for something that Ino didn't want, it would end with him having a massive headache from her shouting. To his surprise, Ino almost jumped at the offer, whether because it was the safest way for all of them to reach the tower, or just because she wanted to be around Sasuke more, he didn't know.

The Nara genius had no idea how accurate his thoughts about Ino were, but he was wrong about who she wanted to be around. Ino was quickly forgetting about her crush on Sasuke, and replacing it with a growing interest in her fellow blonde. She still couldn't understand what it was about the power he wielded, but something about it drove her wild when he had unleashed it against the Oto genin and she could honestly say she wanted to experience that again.

Naruto's assumption proved correct as the two teams experienced no trouble from any of the other teams as they made their way to the tower. Once they had arrived, the two teams went to their respective doors and entered the tower. After deciphering the riddle and opening their two scrolls, team 7 was greeted by none other than Iruka who explained the riddles meaning to them before showing them to the room they would be staying in until the end of the exam.

That was where they were now, each sitting on their own bed. Naruto looked over to Sasuke and saw him rubbing the spot where his new curse mark was. "Sasuke, what happened after Orochimaru bit you?"

Sasuke cringed at the memory of what transpired in his mind, but pushed through it. "I was confronted by another version of me, though this one was younger. It was talking about how it was my fault that my brother killed our clan, that if I had been stronger and had more power, I could have prevented it." A single tear fell as he thought about his deceased family, and he did nothing to hide it, he trusted Naruto and Sakura enough to let them see him like this. "It tried to convince me to accept the power it was offering and to defeat the ones who were attacking us on my own, to show everyone my power. But I managed to fight it off, I pushed it back when I felt your guys' chakra and was reminded that if I truly wanted to understand what it means to have real power, I need to believe in my team mates and comrades."

Naruto and Sakura smiled at their friend, it seemed that all of them had learned a valuable lesson while they were in the forest. Naruto's face then turned serious as something Jiraiya had told him once caused an ingenious, if completely insane idea to form in his mind. "Hey guys," he said interrupting the small conversation Sasuke and Sakura were having, "I just thought of something you might be interested in, though I'll have to tell you a few facts for you to understand." The two nodded and gave their full attention to their team mate, both of them curious as to what he may be planning, "Alright, now first…"

**Chapter 3, done. Tell me what you guys thought about it, but do bare in mind, any and all flames will be ignored entirely, so don't bother wasting mine or your time writing one. Constructive criticism is welcome, but if you complain about the story in general, it will be ignored as well.**

**Hope to hear from everybody,**

**BSW  
**


	4. Chapter 4

**Sorry for the delay, but I had my reasons. Anyway, on with the story and I hope you enjoy the latest installment of Unmasked.  
**

**I own nothing, as usual.**

**Chapter 4- Preliminaries… HAJIME!**

Team 7 stood alongside the other genin that had passed the second phase of the Chuunin Exams, all but a few showing obvious signs of battle. Before them stood the Hokage along with Anko, Ibiki and a sickly looking jounin. Behind them were the jounin senseis of the teams that had passed the exam, all standing at attention in the presence of the legendary Sandaime Hokage.

Sarutobi's gaze swept across the seven teams of genin, impressed by the unusual turn out, _'For so many to have passed, most of them being rookies... truly impressive.' _Glancing over his shoulder at his four most prominent jounin, he smirked around his pipe, _'No wonder they nominated them.'_ Turning back to the genin, the Hokage's eyes zeroed in on his adoptive blonde grandson. The boy had his arms crossed in front of his chest, a small smirk playing at the corners of his lips as he waited for what was to come. _'Minato, Kushina… you would be proud of your son. He truly is a remarkable shinobi; one that I believe will one day transcend the legends of old.' _For a brief moment, an image of Naruto's parents seemed to envelope the boy before disappearing, causing the Hokage's smirk to widen slightly. Though he and his shinobi, except those competing weren't allowed to enter the forest during the exam, the Hokage had other means of keeping track of certain individual's progress. He had observed Naruto and his team ever since they entered the forest with the use of his crystal ball. He had seen how the three had dealt with the appearance of Orochimaru and later the fight with the Oto genin.

His smirk faltered as he thought of his wayward student and all of the deeds he had committed. He had already increased the patrols around the village, more than doubling the activity of the Anbu within the village's walls. He had also recalled as many shinobi as possible from the field without it looking suspicious. Despite the calm front he put on for the sake of his village and his soldiers, he couldn't shake the feeling that they were missing something; something that he believed would decide the fate of Konoha when Orochimaru made his move.

"Alright you brats, listen up! Hokage-sama will now explain the third stage of the Chuunin Exams!" shouted Anko, breaking the Hokage's morbid thoughts as he refocused on the assembled genin. "Hokage-sama, if you please."

"Thank you Anko," said the Sandaime as he blew out a cloud of smoke, "First of all, I would like to congratulate all of you on passing the second stage. You should all be proud, this is the first time in many years that so many promising genin have made it this far in the exam. Now before I tell you about the third exam, there is something you should know about these exams." Seeing that he had their attention, he went on to explain about how the exams were the substitute for war between the countries and how they were used as a means of displaying a country and villages strength to the other nations. "Now, as to the third test itself…" before he could continue the sickly jounin appeared kneeling in front of his kage.

"Forgive me, Hokage-sama," he said, "But please, as the proctor for the third exam, allow me to take things from here?"

"Of course," the veteran kage said as he took a puff of his pipe. Nodding once, the jounin stood and faced the seven teams of genin, his features reaffirming that he was indeed ill.

"Hello everyone, my name is Hayate Gekko, the proctor for the final stage. Before we get to that however, I'm afraid we must have a preliminary round to determine who shall participate in the main event."

Surprising to those who knew him, Shikamaru was the one to react, "Preliminary? What the hell do we need a preliminary for?"

Hayate coughed a few times into his hand before answering, "Because so many of you have made it this far, we must hold a preliminary in accordance with the rules of the exams. As Hokage-sama pointed out, many influential individuals will be present for the final rounds and we cannot afford to waste their time. So to reduce the number of contestants and to insure only the best are allowed to move on, we will hold a preliminary round right here and now. However, if there are any of you who don't feel up to the challenge, you may withdraw from the competition now."

Only one genin raised their hand and Naruto's eyes narrowed when he saw that it belonged to Kabuto. "I'm out, I don't have enough chakra left to compete." Hayate made a note on a file he pulled out of his flak jacket before dismissing Kabuto. Naruto and his team knew something wasn't right as they watched the silver haired genin exit the arena. _'Out of chakra my ass,' _thought Naruto, _'It doesn't even seem like he used any chakra at all while he was in the forest. I have a bad feeling about all of this; I have to speak with Hokage-jiji as soon as possible.'_

"Anko…" began Hayate, bringing everyone's attention back to the matter at hand. The Snake Mistress nodded and spoke into the headset she was wearing, causing a panel on the wall to rise, revealing a hidden monitor underneath. "This board will display the participants for every match. I know it's sudden, but we will choose the first two fighters now. Those two shall remain here while the rest of you make your way to the observation platforms with your respective jounin's. Now… let's begin the selection."

Naruto and the other participating genin watched as the board cycled through random names before finally stopping on the first two combatants. "Will Shino Aburame and Misumi Tsurugi step forward please?" The ever stoic Aburame stepped around his two team mates and moved to stand across from one of Kabuto's team mates. Misumi was dressed exactly like the other members of his team, a purple full body suit with a tan obi around his waist. He also had a purple mask that hung around his face, obscuring everything but his glass covered eyes from view. "If the rest of you could please relocate to the observation platforms, we can begin," Hayate said as everyone started making their way towards the two platforms that overlooked the arena.

Once everyone was clear, Hayate looked between the two boys before coughing a few times. "Now then, this will be an all-out fight, anything and everything goes, understand?" the two genin nodded, "Good, the match is over when one of you is either knocked out, forfeits or dies. I may step in during the match and declare a winner to avoid any unnecessary killing. Are both fighters ready?" again the two genin merely nodded, already sizing each other up and preparing the best way to attack. "Very well… the first match… Hajime!" said Hayate as he swung his arm down before jumping away to avoid getting caught in the crossfire.

"I will give you one chance to surrender. You cannot hope to defeat me once I unleash my technique," said Misumi shifting into a loose taijutsu stance. Shino's only response was to pull his left hand out of his pocket and let it hang at his side. Misumi glared at the Aburame heir before launching himself at the stoic genin, "Cocky little bastard, do you honestly think a rookie like you can defeat me?" The purple clad genin swung his left arm in an attempt to hit Shino with the side of his fist, but it was blocked by Shino's arm coming up and blocking with his forearm. Before Shino could counter, Misumi's arm and body suddenly began to wrap around his person, holding him in place. "I told you, now give up before I'm forced to break your neck," the bespectacled shinobi grunted as he tightened his rubber like arm around Shino's neck.

"Assuming one's superiority to another and declaring victory before the true fight has even begun… a truly foolish belief," said Shino, not showing any signs that the threat had affected him. Misumi growled in frustration before jerking his right arm slightly, causing a loud snapping sound to reverberate throughout the arena.

Most of the rookie genin's eyes widened as they watched Shino's head fall limp. Hinata appeared to be on the verge of tears while Kiba had a look of disbelief on his face. Ino, Shikamaru and Choji were shocked that one of their fellow rookies had just been killed by another Konoha genin. Sakura looked slightly worried, but when Naruto, Sasuke and even Kakashi didn't show any reaction, she knew that things weren't as they seemed and the tide of battle was about to shift.

"Fool," mumbled Misumi as he began to unravel himself from the dead body. He had just loosened his grip on the neck when Shino's body suddenly dissolved into countless insects. "What the…!?" he began but he stopped short as he felt his chakra rapidly leaving his body as the insects swarmed around him. The last thing the older genin saw before he slipped into unconsciousness was Shino appearing across from him, completely unharmed.

Hayate sighed as he watched the swarm of bugs leave Misumi's body and return to Shino, _'Even though he is young, he fights with the cunning and ruthlessness of a seasoned shinobi. To be expected of the Aburame heir.' _"Winner of the first match: Shino Aburame," he said as the medics came and carted the unconscious Misumi away. "We will now begin the selection for the second match."

As the screen cycled through names again, Shino silently rejoined his team, "Good job Shino, you handled yourself well in that fight. Not many of your fellow rookies could have handled that situation as well as you did."

"Thank you, Kurenai-sensei," he said in his usual monotone, "But I'm afraid you are mistaken." Kurenai raised an eyebrow in surprise while Kiba and Hinata looked at their team mate, silently asking him to explain. "There are two genin among this year's rookies that could have easily defeated my opponent without much effort. They are by far the most skilled from our class and I doubt I would be able to defeat them should I face them in combat."

"Well, come on Shino spit it out! Who are these two?" asked Kiba, arrogantly thinking that he was one of the two, with Sasuke most likely being the other. The three other teams on the balcony with them had silently been listening in, but now they all turned their full attention to the bug user, except team 7, who continue to watch the screen shuffling through the names.

"They are Sasuke Uchiha," he said, confirming what many of the others had suspected, but only those who had witnessed it in the forest believed the second name, "And Naruto Uzumaki."

"What!? You honestly expect me to believe that Naruto, the dead last, is that strong? I can understand Sasuke, but Naruto?" yelled Kiba in surprise. He may have been Naruto's friend when they were younger, but his pride wouldn't allow him to believe that Naruto could possibly be that strong.

Hinata didn't say anything; she just glanced at Naruto and felt a blush spread across her cheeks as she took in his new appearance. She had always known he was good looking, something that no other girl had ever taken the time to see, but his new outfit combined with the aura he had about him nearly caused the young girl to faint.

Everyone's attention was drawn back to the matter at hand as the board beeped, signaling the selection had been made. "Will Sasuke Uchiha and Kankuro no Sabaku please come down?" said Hayate before coughing into his hand. Sasuke smirked as he prepared to jump down to the arena before a hand on his shoulder stopped him. Turning to the owner of the hand, Sasuke saw Naruto with a serious expression on his face, "What's up Naruto?"

Naruto glanced over at the Suna team and saw Kankuro leisurely walking towards the stairs to the arena. "Do not underestimate him Sasuke. If I'm right about the type of technique he uses, you can't afford to let your guard down."

Sasuke and Sakura had learned quickly that Naruto was far more observant than he let on. In the week they had spent together before the exams, Naruto had scarcely been wrong in his observations. So if he believed that Sasuke's opponent was not to be underestimated, then it probably was so. Sasuke nodded as a look of determination appeared in his eyes, "Don't worry, I won't let that happen. After all," a small smirk spread across his lips as he met Naruto's gaze, "You owe me a rematch from our last spar, and I plan on having it in the finals."

A smirk of his own formed as Naruto took his hand off of Sasuke's shoulder and held it up in front of his face. Sasuke brought his own hand up and clasped it with Naruto's, "Couldn't have said it better myself, Sasuke-teme." Lowering their hands, the two shinobi shared one last smirk before Sasuke jumped down into the arena and faced an irate looking Kankuro.

"About time you got down here. I was beginning to think you'd forfeit," said Kankuro, trying to get a rise out the last Uchiha.

Sasuke's smirk never wavered as he starred down his opponent, "As if, an Uchiha never backs down from a fight."

Knowing that if the banter kept up, one of the boys would eventually lose it and attack the other; Hayate stepped forward and raised his arm. "Are both fighters ready?" he asked, though he and everyone else already knew the answer. Receiving two nods, Hayate swung his arm down and jumped away, "The second match… Hajime!"

Sasuke didn't waste a second; before Hayate was even clear he pulled out a kunai and threw it at the black clad genin. Not expecting such a preemptive attack from the Konoha genin, Kankuro barely managed to dodge the kunai as it sailed past his head. Caught off guard and unbalanced, the Suna genin couldn't defend against the follow up and received a strong punch to the face because of it. Not letting up in his assault, Sasuke dropped to the ground and tried to sweep Kankuro's legs out from under him.

Luckily for Kankuro, he managed to regain enough of his senses to jump over the leg sweep and retaliate with a kick of his own. Taking a page out of the old Naruto's book of doing the unexpected, Sasuke substituted himself with the wrapped object on Kankuro's back, allowing it to take the kick instead. Kankuro could only widen his eyes when he felt the splintering of wood beneath his foot, instead of the squishing of flesh. Taking advantage of his opponent's distraction, Sasuke grabbed onto the back of Kankuro's shirt and threw him over his shoulder towards one of the walls. Remembering Naruto's advice, Sasuke quickly jumped away from the partially revealed puppet, just in time to avoid being skewered by a barrage of senbon. Knowing that he would be in trouble if was caught by surprise with one of those attacks, Sasuke channeled chakra into his eyes and activated his Sharingan, wincing as the curse seal tried to spread and take over. _'No, I won't let this thing control me!' _thought the black haired genin as images of his team mates flashed in his mind, reinforcing his will and repressing the tainted power of the mark.

Disguised as the sensei of the Oto team, Orochimaru's eyes widened in surprise as he watched Sasuke suppress his cursed seal with will power alone, but his surprise quickly turned into a predatory smirk. _'To be able to resist the power of the cursed seal… you will truly be the perfect vessel for my next body, Sasuke-kun.' _

Standing behind her leader, Anko was in a state of disbelief as Sasuke suppressed the seal. She had felt the spike of the tainted chakra through her own cursed seal and had almost intervened when Sasuke had forced the mark to recede, _'The curse is receding? How the hell did he manage to stop it?'_

Kankuro cursed when his attack missed, _'How the hell did he know to dodge? He didn't have his Sharingan activated and he wasn't even facing Karasu, so how the hell did he dodge?' _Picking himself up from where he had landed on the ground, Kankuro twitched his fingers and Karasu appeared in front of him, free of the bandages that were wrapped around him. "I don't know how you did that, but it won't happen again!" with a few movements of his fingers, all four of Karasu's arms opened at the elbow. The top two arms fired a small purple ball each at the Uchiha's feet while the remaining two unleashed a wave of senbon.

Thanks to his Sharingan, Sasuke noticed the liquid coating the needles and immediately knew that Naruto had been right. _'Poison, no wonder Naruto told me to keep my guard up. One little scratch and it's all over,' _he thought as he jumped away, avoiding the senbon and just clearing the range of the poisoned smoke cloud. Unfortunately, Kankuro wasn't being lax in his efforts to kill the last Uchiha and moved Karasu in close to Sasuke, poison tipped blades extending from each arm. It was only thanks to his dojutsu that Sasuke managed to avoid each of the blades attempts at cutting and piercing him.

Seeing an opening in the puppets attacks, Sasuke jumped back to get some distance and threw two handfuls of shuriken in a wide arc around the puppet. Kankuro smirked seeing the weapons completely miss his puppet, but it quickly vanished when he noticed that they were aimed at him instead. Jumping into the air to avoid the lethal stars, the Suna genin cursed as he felt his strings attached to Karasu loosen slightly. _'Damn it, he's attacking me directly to lessen my control over Karasu,' _thought Kankuro as he landed safely on the floor of the arena. His respite was cut short when Sasuke appeared behind him and kicked him towards his puppet. _'Fool,' _thought Kankuro as he flipped in midair and landed on his feet next to his puppet, _'For a moment there I thought he might have figured out how to counter a puppeteer, but it looks like…'_

An explosion cut off Kankuro's thoughts as he was blown into the wall on the far side of the arena. His body riddled with pieces of shrapnel, from splinters to the broken remains of Karasu's blades. Sasuke smirked as he saw the results of the paper bomb he had placed on the puppet, "You shouldn't have let your guard down. You assumed that just because you were the one controlling that puppet, there was no way it could be used to attack you. It seems you were wrong."

Kankuro struggled to lift his head enough to see his unscathed opponent and forced out, "H-h-how?"

Sasuke walked over to his discarded shuriken and placed all of them back into their proper holster. "The shuriken were just a distraction to keep your mind and attention off of your puppet. While you were in the air and focused on the shuriken, I hid a paper bomb under your puppets cloak. When you didn't immediately call the puppet back to you, I took matters into my own hands and forced you closer to it and let the bomb handle the rest." That was the last thing Kankuro heard before he lost consciousness and slumped back into the wall. Sasuke jumped back up to his team just as the medics arrived to take Kankuro away, "You may want to hurry and get him treated, those blades were laced with poison." The three medics immediately rushed Kankuro out of the arena and to the infirmary to be treated. It may have been in the context of the Chuunin Exams, but if one of the Kazekage's sons died while in their care it could lead to some political trouble for the village.

"Good work, Sasuke," said Kakashi with an eye smile, "You won the battle, yet you didn't reveal much of what you are truly capable of. That will give you an edge over the rest of the competition in the finals."

"Unless of course, you face one of us," Sakura said, a challenging smirk on her face, "You may want to have your rematch with Naruto here during the finals, but if either of you two ends up fighting me, you may not get the chance."

"We shall see Sakura, we shall see," said Naruto as he crossed his arms and leaned against the wall. "Though I must admit, it would be interesting to see how we all fair against one another in an all-out fight. We have only ever sparred against one another under Kakashi-sensei's watch and he never allows us to go full power on each other."

"With good reason; if the three of you were to engage in an all-out fight with one another, the results of the fight would be uncharacteristically similar to those left by two jounin engaging one another. That is a repair bill I would rather not have to pay," Kakashi said, shivering at the thought of having to pay that much to repair their training ground.

It was at that moment that Asuma, Guy and Kurenai, who had been listening in on the conversation decided to speak up. "Really Kakashi; you believe that the three of them fighting each other would result in damage similar to two jounin? Your students may indeed be youthful, but even I have to doubt the truth of that claim." Asuma and Kurenai both voiced their agreement with Guy's assumption. They may have heard of what Naruto and Sakura were capable of from Ino when she arrived and Sasuke's skills had always been top notch, all three would quite possibly be chuunin by the end of the exam, but comparing them to jounin standards was something else entirely.

"Guy has a point Kakashi," said Asuma as he blew out a cloud of smoke, "No one can argue that your students don't have skill, probably enough so to become chuunin. But you know better than most that the gap between chuunin and jounin is vast. To even suggest that three genin, no matter how skilled, fighting would have similar results as two jounin fighting is ridiculous. You shouldn't inflate their egos by making such a bold claim, it will only lead them to being arrogant in battle and getting themselves killed."

Kakashi frowned as he faced his fellow jounin, his ever present smut nowhere to be seen. You could insult him all day and he wouldn't care, but insulting his students and going so far as to say that he was trying to make them arrogant was crossing the line. "Perhaps I should be a little more specific with that statement. If the three of them were to fight one another in a three way, all-out fight, the resulting destruction would easily be the same as that of two rookie jounin. You forget that my team was designed to be an assault team, so their abilities are more focused to gaining an edge in combat with more destructive force. They and I know the limits of their current power and it is far from what the four of us are capable of, but be that as it may, I will not stand idly by and let you slander my students by claiming them to be arrogant."

From his place on the balcony, the Hokage had heard everything that was being said amongst his four most promising genin teams. He had seen what team 7 was capable of and he had to agree with Kakashi that the results of such a fight would indeed be extensive. However, he couldn't stop the frown that formed at what the other jounin were saying about his adoptive grandson's team. He understood that they were merely trying to act in the best interest of the genin. Asuma's claim of genin becoming arrogant about such things held merit, but then again, he didn't know the full extent of team 7's capabilities. Kakashi's response was as he had expected, but his eyes widened when he recognized the tone in Kakashi's voice, he had only heard that tone once before when two newly promoted chuunin insulted Naruto within ear shot of the Copy Ninja. The two fools had spent two months in the hospital and had been forced to retire early from Konoha's ranks as the injuries Kakashi had inflicted on the two were too severe for them to continue as ninja.

Just as he was about to interfere, lest the four jounin end up in a war with one another, Naruto's voice cut through the tension in the air. "Kakashi-sensei," the cycloptic jounin turned to his blonde student, his anger at his fellow jounin's shining in his lone eye, "Ignore them." Everyone within hearing range registered shock at the blonde's statement, though the undertone in his voice almost made it seem like an order. "My fellow genin will have to forgive me for this, but I feel this must be said. Your senseis have the audacity to question mine and my team mates' skills, even though they do not know or understand the true extent what we are capable of. Kakashi is the only jounin in this room who knows what we can do, and as our sensei it is his right to make such a claim if he believes it to be true." Turning his head to look at the three jounin in question, he fixed each of them with a glare that almost made them flinch. "Given that, it seems that it is not we who are in danger of becoming arrogant, but the three of you who have become arrogant in your own power."

The three senseis were shocked to hear this coming from a genin, but no matter how they tried to argue the fact, the points the boy had made were all true. Though they wouldn't admit it aloud, the reason for their rather unprovoked reaction to Kakashi's claim was because of their pride in their own teams. Asuma and Kurenai had been training their teams for the same amount of time as Kakashi had been training his and while they were both confident their teams could take on an elite chuunin together, they were far from facing off against a jounin on their own. Guy had trained his team for over a year and while he himself may have believed his students could do much the same as Kakashi's, he was not one to voice it for fear of them becoming arrogant, or more so in the case of Neji, should they hear it. That Kakashi was openly willing to say something like that to his team had gotten under his skin as he felt his rival was trying to make his students believe they were stronger than they were, something he had always strived to prevent, not only in his own team but in other genin as well.

Their students couldn't help but agree with Naruto, even if only for the fact that their teachers passed judgment without proper knowledge. One thing that had been drilled into them in the Academy was to never assume something, and that was exactly what their teachers had done. Team 10 and more specifically Ino, whole heartedly agreed with Naruto. They may have seen some of what the members of team 7 were capable of in the forest, but that was as individuals and they were sure they hadn't even seen half of that. Now their sensei was questioning team 7's abilities as a whole without even understanding what they were capable of on their own.

"Well, now that that matter is settled, shall we continue with the preliminaries? I think everyone has been given sufficient thoughts to ponder for the time being," said the Hokage as he nodded to Hayate to begin the next selection. The board immediately began running through names again before stopping on the next two combatants.

"Will Kiba Inuzuka and Dosu Kinuta come down for the third match?" Dosu silently made his way down the steps to the arena, while Kiba, with Akamaru at his side, jumped off the balcony, putting his thoughts aside and focusing on the fight at hand. "Both fighters ready?" asked Hayate once the two boys were standing in front of him. Dosu and Kiba silently nodded with Akamaru giving a bark of his own, "Very well… Hajime!"

Kiba jumped back with Akamaru and slipped into the opening stance for his clan's taijutsu, "I don't know how you and your team managed to pass the last exam with two of you being handicapped, but you won't be going any further." Forming the tiger seal to focus his chakra, Kiba bent down and placed his hands on the ground, "Four Legs Jutsu." His naturally animalistic features became even more feral with his nails lengthening into claws and his teeth becoming fangs.

"I may be missing an arm, but a shinobi is never without tricks," said Dosu as he raised left arm above his head and let his sleeve fall down, revealing a new melody arm attached to it.

Naruto's eyes narrowed at the Oto genin. He had studied the gauntlet he severed along with Dosu's arm and had a rough idea of how he manipulated the sound vibrations it produced. "Dosu," he shouted, catching everyone off guard, "I should warn you, I know how your technique works. If you so much as try and use it against any of us bystanders, you'll regret it."

Dosu's eye widened slightly as his plan of exacting revenge against the blonde failed before he even had a chance to implement it. _'Damn him, he must have studied the melody arm he took from me. No matter, I'll just have to take it out on this fool,' _he thought, refocusing on the feral genin before him, only to be forced to jump away as the spinning form of Kiba almost collided with his chest.

Kiba stopped his spin in midair and turned to see Dosu charging him with his left arm cocked back. _'That's right you dumb ass, focus all of your attention on me,' _thought Kiba, drawing a kunai and moving to meet Dosu halfway. Just before the two were about to collide, a second twister came from the left and nailed the mummified genin in the side. Dosu grunted as he tumbled painfully across the stone floor before managing to right himself and skidding a few feet. Looking back towards his opponent, he mentally cursed when he saw two Kiba's rushing him with their claws at the ready.

'_Because of their enhanced senses, Inuzuka's should be incredibly susceptible to my attacks, but as long as he and that mutt of his are spinning at those speeds my vibrations won't reach them. I'll have to strike the moment they end their rotation to have any chance of winning,' _thought the Oto genin. Once Kiba and the transformed Akamaru were only a few feet away they both jumped and began to spin again, preparing to unleash their most powerful technique.

"Fang Passing Fang," said Kiba's distorted voice as the two drills began a barrage of attacks against the one armed genin. Dosu, to his credit managed to avoid quite a few of the Inuzuka duos attempts at striking him, though he did receive a few injuries in the process. Kiba and Akamaru broke off their attack and both landed on opposite sides of their opponent. Growling in frustration, Kiba pulled out two purple smoke bombs and threw them at Dosu feet before he and Akamaru began their assault a new.

'_So he's using his sense of smell to track my position and at the same time removing my ability to see to make it harder to counter.' _Dosu chuckled slightly as he closed his one eye and listened for the two incoming attacks, _'Unfortunately, he's not the only one who has other means of finding someone.'_ With that, the two shinobi and one ninken began their dance of attacking and dodging once again, with Dosu receiving even less injuries as he relied solely on his ears to track the two spinning bodies.

Up on the balcony, Naruto, still leaning against the wall with his arms crossed, was examining every aspect of the fight taking place. Both combatants were incredibly skilled despite their rank, something that could be said for just about all of the genin present, but they both also had a gaping flaw in their fighting styles. Kiba relied solely on his clan's techniques and taijutsu to fight, as well as relying heavily on Akamaru's assistance to overwhelm their opponents. Dosu's fighting style, as he had learned in the forest, revolved completely around manipulating the vibrations produced by his melody arm. Without it, he would probably be completely useless in combat. Naruto sighed quietly so as not to draw the attention of his team, it seemed the two genin thought the same as many shinobi did; that if they trained and mastered a single aspect of the ninja arts, than they could easily defeat an opponent using their advanced abilities in that area. What many failed to realize until they reached at least jounin rank however, was that that kind of over specialization would more often than not lead to them being defeated and forced into a retreat, or even outright killed. _'It seems that most of our graduating class is more overly specialized then I first thought. I'll have to work on correcting that sooner rather than later,' _he thought before refocusing on the match just in time to see Kiba and Akamaru finally land two solid blows on Dosu, managing to knock the foreign genin out long enough for Hayate to declare Kiba the winner.

"That was a pretty even match," said Sakura from her place standing next to the railing, "Though I wonder why that Dosu guy didn't just use his technique right from the beginning. If he had, Kiba and Akamaru would both have been so disoriented they wouldn't have been able to fight."

"It's because of the nature of his technique," said Naruto, getting three interested looks from his team, "When I was examining the gauntlet attached to the arm I cut off, I discovered that while it does increase sound vibrations to the fullest, it isn't that effective unless the user and target are in close proximity to one another. The longer the distance, the more chakra one has to use to guide the vibrations and the weaker the vibrations become. From what I can tell, its truly effective range is about ten feet or less."

"Looks like their sound techniques aren't as much of a threat as we previously thought," Sasuke said with a smirk as he watched the screen speed through the names of the remaining genin. He was interested to see what both of his team mates were capable of in single combat. He had only woken up after Naruto had defeated the Oto team and he greatly wanted to see what the blonde could do in a real fight instead of a spar. He was also really curious about Sakura's abilities on her own. He had seen how she handled herself against Orochimaru and greatly wanted to see what she could do without his or Naruto's help.

"Excellent work Kiba," said Kurenai as the Inuzuka heir rejoined the rest of team 8, "Your attacks are getting faster and more ferocious. Though you seemed a little bit desperate to end the match quickly; why was that? Did it have something to do with what that Naruto kid said?"

Kiba nodded as he petted Akamaru, "Yeah, that mummy guy was startled by Naruto's warning and he didn't even seem like he was paying attention to me or Akamaru before the fight began. But after what Naruto said, he focused solely on me, like he planned on doing what he couldn't do to Naruto, to me."

"Do you r-r-really th-think he w-w-would h-have tried to a-attack N-Naruto-kun instead?" asked Hinata worried about what might have happened to her crush.

"It is possible," said Shino, who was talking to a bug on his finger, "My insects detected trace amounts of Naruto-san's chakra on him, meaning he and his team fought against Naruto-san at some point during the second stage. Given their current condition, it seems logical that Naruto was most likely the one to inflict those injuries to them."

Hinata's eyes widened slightly at the thought of the Naruto she thought she knew causing such harm to another person. It just didn't seem possible that the bright and smiling blonde she had come to love could be so cruel to anyone, enemy or not. "N-Naruto-kun wou-wouldn't really do t-that, would he?" she asked, not entirely certain she wanted the answer to that question.

Kiba sighed, but nodded, "That's probably what happened." Hinata looked to be on the verge of tears at the thought of 'her Naruto-kun' being so cruel. "Hinata, I know you like the guy, though I don't understand why, but we have to face facts. That guy had Naruto's scent on him as well, meaning he was more than close enough to him for Naruto to inflict those kinds of injuries. Also, I picked up a faint metallic scent on his right arm, probably from the sword that was used to sever it. Sasuke and Sakura don't have any kind of weapon with them that could cut that cleanly through a human arm and with his sudden change, we have no idea what Naruto's capable of or what those scrolls are for. I don't like it either Hinata, but everything points to Naruto being the one who caused the injuries."

Kurenai nodded in agreement with her students' analysis causing a single tear to escape Hinata's eyes. The red eyed jounin felt her heart ache at the sight of the girl she thought of as a daughter obviously in so much pain, but she needed to learn the darker side of the ninja life, no matter how much Kurenai wanted to keep her protected from it.

The board beeping again drew everyone's attention as they looked to see who would be fighting next. Naruto and Sasuke's eyes narrowed before they looked at each other and silently nodded. Sasuke activated his Sharingan and focused solely on the arena, ready to commit everything about the next match to memory. At the same time Naruto glanced a little ways down the balcony and spotted the smirking form of Neji Hyuuga. From the cards they stole from Kabuto before the first exam, they knew that his skills, like his team mates, centered solely on the concepts of taijutsu and hand to hand combat. His card also had a note that people called him the 'Hyuuga Prodigy,' one of the most powerful and gifted people to ever come from the revered clan.

'_Time to see what this guy is capable of,' _thought Naruto as Neji slowly made his way towards the steps, one could almost feel the arrogance coming off of his body in waves.

"So that's Neji Hyuuga," said Sakura with frown, "It seems his abilities have gone straight to his head, he has an even bigger ego than you did Sasuke." Kakashi couldn't hold in his snort as he tried to repress his laughter and Naruto smirked slightly at what his pink haired team mate said. Sasuke's only indication that he heard Sakura was a light punch to the girls arm, his eyes focused solely on the two genin standing across from Hayate.

Managing to regain his composure, Kakashi cleared his throat slightly before focusing on the coming match as well. "That may be Sakura, but his arrogance does have some weight behind it. From what Guy has told me, Neji has never been defeated in close quarters combat even once. If any of you end up facing him in the finals, your best bet at defeating him is to use long range techniques." The three genin nodded in understanding as they waited for the match to begin.

Hayate looked at the two boys standing in front of him, "Yoroi Akado and Neji Hyuuga, are the two of you ready?" Yoroi silently nodded while Neji merely folded his arms across his chest. "Very well then, the fourth match of the preliminaries…Hajime!"

"Misumi might have lost against one of you rookies, but I learn from peoples mistakes. I suggest you surrender while you're still able to, Hyuuga." Neji didn't give any outward reaction except to slip into the opening stance for his family's taijutsu. "Have it your way then," Yoroi said before he charged the Hyuuga prodigy, his right hand igniting with chakra.

Once he was in range, Yoroi tried to grab ahold of the pale eyed boy, only for his arm to fall limp at his side. "What!?" he shouted just before he was silenced by a flurry of palm and finger strikes from his opponent, sending him into blissful unconsciousness.

Crossing his arms in front of his chest again, Neji looked at the unconscious body lying at his feet. "Pathetic," he said "To think that you even had a chance at defeating me, a prodigy, foolish. Fate had already determined the outcome of this match, trying to defy it is pointless." With that, he turned and started making his way back towards the steps to rejoin his team.

Up on the balcony, Naruto had his eyes narrowed into a glare as he watched the pompous genin leave the arena. It was because of that attitude that he had such a strong dislike of the Hyuuga clan. They believed that because of their precious Byakugan that they were above all others; that they deserved to be treated as some form of royalty. "Man, now I see why you used to get so pissed at me Naruto. Did I really act that bad?" asked Sasuke, bringing Naruto out of his dark thoughts about the Hyuuga clan.

"No," said Naruto with a small shake of his head, "You were never that bad, but you still managed to get under my skin by acting like you were better than others at times." Sasuke nodded in understanding and made a silent promise to himself and his team that he would never travel down that road again. "Anyway, did you manage to get anything out of that fight?"

"Unfortunately, no," said the dark haired genin as his features slowly morphed into a scowl, "All I managed to see was that Yoroi guy's chakra didn't move normally, it almost seemed to form a vacuum of some sorts in the palm of his hand." Sakura furrowed her brow in confusion while Kakashi's lone eye widened slightly.

"You said his chakra formed a vacuum of sorts in his hands?" asked the copy-nin, wanting to make sure he heard correctly. At the Sasuke's nod, Kakashi let out a sigh, "Than I suppose it was a good thing none of you had to fight him."

"Why's that Kakashi-sensei?" asked Sakura.

"Because that boy has a leeching ability," the three genin each raised an eyebrow in confusion, prompting Kakashi to explain further. "It is a rare ability that allows someone to syphon off another person's chakra, and should they become advanced enough with the ability, manipulate that stolen chakra and add it to their own reserves." Sasuke and Sakura's eyes widened at the prospect of such an ability, while Naruto glanced at the unconscious genin being carted away by the medics, a frown marring his face.

'_Now I'm certain of it, their entire team must be some kind of enemy plant. First that Kabuto guy has classified information on the participants, and now both of his team mates possess two unique abilities? That can't be a coincidence,' _thought the blonde as he glanced over at the balcony along the other wall. The only people left on the balcony were the Suna team, minus Kankuro, and the Oto team they had fought in the Forest of Death. As his eyes passed over the Oto team's sensei, his sensory abilities registered the thick, evil chakra he felt from Orochimaru in the forest. _'So he's here, he must be pretty confident in himself to make such a bold move, especially with the Hokage present.' _"Be on guard," he said in a whisper so only his team could hear him. The three other members of team 7 jumped slightly at the sudden sound of Naruto's voice, but their brows furrowed in confusion once they registered what he had said. "He's here," he said just as softly, "Orochimaru has infiltrated the tower."

The two genin and one jounin stiffened at the blonde's words, but quickly relaxed their posture so as not to cause suspicion. "Where is he Naruto?" asked Kakashi as he swept his gaze across the entire arena.

"He's disguised himself as the Oto team's sensei and he's suppressing his chakra to normal jounin levels so as not to give himself away. But that still doesn't explain why the Hokage hasn't sensed his presence and done something about it. He should know Orochimaru's chakra signature better than anyone, whether he's a sensor or not," said Naruto, his eyes narrowing in suspicion towards the end.

Kakashi flicked his gaze towards the disguised Sannin for a brief moment, before returning to his blonde pupil. "Unfortunately Naruto, he is very much aware of Orochimaru's presence," he said, causing his three students eyes to widen.

"Then why hasn't he done something? Isn't marshal law supposed to be implemented at the very sight of that man?" asked Sakura in a whispered shout. Sasuke nodded his agreement with the pink haired kunoichi while Naruto glanced towards the Hokage.

At first glance, he appeared to be his normal serene, kind hearted self, no sense of worry or tension in his body. But that was to those who didn't know the man, and even though he hadn't spent much time in the man's presence since he began his training with Jiraiya, he knew all of the veteran kage's tells for when he was hiding something thanks to his godfather. The fact that he stopped smoking his pipe after the first match for no apparent reason, as the man always had spare tobacco with him, was his first hint that something was off with the Sandaime. There were a few other subtle things that no one would have given a second thought about, but the one thing that confirmed Kakashi's statement was the subtle way the old man was flexing his chakra. It was something no one would be able to notice unless they were a natural sensor or had extensive experience in the art; the way his chakra moved, almost as if he was stretching it, loosening it up in case he was required to use it at a moment's notice. "Kakashi-sensei's right," he said, interrupting his team mate's quite argument with their sensei. Sasuke and Sakura turned to him, their shock and disbelief of the situation clearly visible. "I don't know why he hasn't done anything about it, but he must have his reasons. For now, let's just focus all of our energy on these preliminaries and make sure we all make it to the finals. Once we have done that, we can speak with the Hokage about what happened in the forest and try and pry some answers out him at the same time."

Though the idea of just ignoring Orochimaru being in the same room as them wasn't exactly appealing, the two genin of team 7 slowly nodded their consent and refocused on the next match that was about to begin. They had been so caught up in their own conversation, that they hadn't even heard Hayate announce the participants. Sakura's eyes widened slightly as she immediately put the thoughts of Orochimaru out of her mind for the time being, focusing solely on the match about to take place. "It's Ino's turn? I hope she can pull out a win here, I would like to face her in the finals if I had the chance."

Naruto chuckled as he too focused on his fellow blonde that was about to go into battle, "I hope she wins too, she has more potential than even she knows."

**There you go, hope you enjoyed it. Also, as you probably noticed, I'm not using any of the canon match-ups. I have used them in many of my other stories, and I thought it would a nice change of pace to mix things up a bit.**

**Keep an eye out for another chapter I plan on posting soon.**

**BSW**


	5. Chapter 5

**As promised, here is the next chapter of Unmasked. Even I haven't been updating frequently, I want you all to know I have still been working on all of my stories, some are just coming easier then others. Hope you enjoy, and let me know what you think.**

**Once again, I don't own Naruto**

**Chapter 5- Flowers Waiting to Blossom**

On the arena floor, Ino stood across from Kin, the Oto kunoichi she had possessed in the Forest of Death. It seemed she wasn't the only one who remembered that encounter, and the results the situation had brought about, if the blood chilling glare the dark haired girl was leveling on her was any indication. Somehow managing to shake off the glare and accompanying killing intent, the Yamanaka heiress looked over her shoulder and spotted the reassuring smiles her team mates and sensei where giving her. A little ways down from her team, her own blue eyes met the deep sapphire pools that Naruto called eyes and she felt a powerful sense of determination and will to never give up fill her. Though her clan specialized in the mind arts and reading people in general, she couldn't determine what caused the unusual feelings that overcame her. All she could come up with was that she didn't want to let Naruto down while he watched, she wanted to prove, not only to him, but to herself that she wasn't weak, that she was capable of fighting for herself and those precious to her.

The sound of Hayate clearing his throat brought her attention back to the match she was about to fight. "Now then, the fifth match; Ino Yamanaka vs. Kin Tsuchi, are both competitors ready?" a nod from both girls saw the sickly proctor lowering his hand and jumping back to a safe distance, "Hajime!"

"I've been hoping for this chance," said Kin, "I can finally repay you for that cheap shot of yours in the forest." Not waiting to give Ino a chance to respond, the Oto kunoichi quickly drew two senbon and threw them towards her blonde opponent. Cursing under her breath, Ino barely managed to duck out of the way as the two needles passed over her head and embedded themselves into the wall behind her. As she was reaching for her shuriken pouch to launch a counter, a slight jingling noise behind her caught her attention. A quick glance over her shoulder revealed the source to be two bells tied to the needles Kin had thrown.

'_Bells? She can't seriously be using that old trick,' _thought Ino in confusion before turning back to her opponent and throwing a handful of shuriken as a counter. She cursed again when Kin effortlessly side stepped the throwing stars and threw another pair of needles at her. Drawing a kunai in response, Ino deflected the two needles causing them to clatter to the floor at her feet. Before she could make another move, more jingling came from behind her. _'What the…' _her thoughts were cut off as she suddenly found herself unable to focus or maintain her balance. Falling to her knees, she looked up at her opponent, only to find that she was seeing multiple, blurred images of the Oto kunoichi. _'What is this? Genjutsu?'_

On the balcony, Naruto frowned as he sensed the fluctuations in Ino's chakra, "Damn, not good."

Sakura turned to look at her blonde team mate, "What is it Naruto?"

"That Kin girl uses some form of sound based genjutsu. It appears to be similar in part to the effect of the melody arm, but it causes one to fall into an illusion instead of causing direct damage to its victim. So long as Ino stays under its effect, she's a goner," finished Naruto grimly as he continued to watch his fellow blonde struggle against the effects of the genjutsu. Sakura gasped at Naruto's analysis of the situation, a move mimicked by Ino's team mates when Asuma nodded in agreement with what Naruto had said.

While the three of them tried shouting support to help Ino fight her way out of the genjutsu, Naruto closed his eyes in concentration as he tried to think of a way to help his fellow blonde. He knew that if anyone attempted to break the genjutsu for Ino, the girl would immediately be disqualified and Kin would move on to the finals, not a position they wanted to be in as it essentially opened the door for Orochimaru to infiltrate the village even more than he already had. No, he had to come up with something that could reach Ino and encourage her to fight on, without actually interfering with the match itself.

An answer came to him in the form of a dark, ominous voice speaking inside his mind, _**'You could always flare your chakra so that little girl's pitiful sensor abilities can pick up on it.'**_

Naruto's frown deepened into a full blown scowl at the voice of his tenant, _'What do you want fox; and why in the world would I actually listen to anything you have to say?' _A growl was the only sign of the Kyuubi's displeasure at Naruto's comment, but other than that decided just to say his piece and cut the connection with his host.

'_**I am merely offering a piece of advice so you will stop your insistent pondering; it's starting to give me a headache listening to your thoughts ramble on and on. Anyway, back to what I was getting at; your chakra is unique in the fact that it is heavily Yang oriented, something that has only happened a handful of times in the history of your race. This means that you possess not only a strong life force, but also strong life giving chakra, making it so that anyone who comes in contact with your chakra or senses it will essentially have 'life' returned to them, giving them a push to continue to fight.' **_His piece spoken, the Kyuubi severed the mental connection he created and left his jinchuuriki to ponder on what he had said.

Naruto's eyes widened slightly as his tenant explained his reasons for his rather strange suggestion, but the more he listened, the more things started to make sense in the genin's mind. He had noticed a few times when he had flared or called upon large amounts of his chakra that those around him seemed to get a second wind almost. Also, Jiraiya had hypothesized that his chakra had a unique quality to it that no one else's seemed to have. _'I suppose it's worth a shot,' _he thought as Ino tried to stand up again, only to fall back to her knees with three senbon in her right leg, _'Come on Ino, you can still pull through this!'_

Stepping up to the edge of the railing drew everyone's attention to the blonde as he closed his eyes in focus. Sasuke and Sakura shared a confused look behind their team mate, before glancing to their sensei, only to see him shrug while keeping his lone eye fixed on Naruto. Just as Sasuke was about to ask what he was up to, Naruto's chakra suddenly flared up around him, enough so that everyone could easily feel his presence, but not enough to forcibly break the genjutsu placed on Ino. Everyone suddenly felt stronger and more at peace as Naruto's chakra washed over them, they felt as if they could do just about anything so long as this feeling continued to fill them. The only people who didn't feel this sense of euphoria envelope them were the disguised Orochimaru and those that had had prolonged exposure to his foul, tainted chakra.

The members of the future 'Konoha 12' were also having their own reactions to Naruto's chakra. Lee felt his 'flames of youth' burning even brighter than they had before, while Tenten smiled and reveled in the unique presence around her. Out of the three of them, Naruto's chakra had the largest effect on Neji as he felt a lot of his aggression and anger leaving him. Memories of his life before his father had died flooded his mind and he shed a single tear as the memories continued to play over in his minds eye.

Shino's insects were at first going crazy at the exposure to such large amounts of chakra, but just as quickly as they started, they settled down and began to move about Shino's body as carefree as their wild brethren do every day. Hinata felt herself becoming more confident the longer she remained in the presence of Naruto's chakra. Kiba's animal instincts were screaming at him to follow Naruto wherever he may lead, because he was a true alpha, one that commanded respect by his very presence alone. A little ways down from team 8, Shikamaru and Choji couldn't help but relax despite their worry for Ino. The feeling around them made them believe that everything would work out in the end, and it would all be for the better.

Sasuke and Sakura, having been exposed to Naruto's chakra longer than the others, weren't affected as greatly as the others were, but they still felt the sense of power and will to never give up fill them.

Across the arena, even the mentally unstable Gaara felt the sense of peace wash over him as the voice of his 'mother' became fainter and didn't cause him as much pain. _'What is this feeling?' _the redheaded jinchuuriki wondered as he slowly became more comfortable with the foreign feelings and began to relish the sense of completeness it brought to him.

On the arena floor, Ino's growing sensory skills were almost being overwhelmed by the chakra Naruto was releasing. Just like when they were in the Forest of Death, the young heiress felt her chakra reaching out towards Naruto's, and this time, she let it. At first nothing seemed to have happened, but suddenly her world exploded as she felt her energy returning to her and her chakra levels skyrocketing. _'Th-this power! I-it's incredible! Where did it come from?' _thought Ino, unaware that another person could now hear her thoughts.

'_That would be me Ino,' _said a voice in her mind that sounded exactly like Naruto's. _'That's because it is me Ino. Before you start asking questions and trying to figure out what's going on, I suggest you finish your match so we can have a proper conversation about this. But to sate your curiosity for now, I think this link is kind of like your clan's telepathy technique, or at least something similar to it. Now finish your match and we'll continue this discussion once you've won.' _With that Naruto's voice left her mind and Ino was dragged back to the present. She noticed immediately that the effects of Kin's genjutsu were weakened and the numerous copies of the girl were all on one knee panting slightly.

Still confused about what she had just discovered, the blonde kunoichi decided to end the match quickly and try and get some answers. Forming the ram sign and stopping the flow of her newly replenished chakra, Ino spiked her chakra to a level that surprised even her, "Kai." Finally free of the illusion and seeing that her opponent was quickly recovering, Ino picked up the kunai she had dropped and cut the wire connected to the two bells. Pushing her advantage, the heiress moved in close to her opponent and pinned the girl down with the kunai poised to slit her throat.

It was at that point that Hayate got over the incredible feeling being produced by Naruto's chakra and noticed the situation the two girls were in. "Winner: Ino Yamanaka," his voice seemed to bring everyone out of their individual reverie, with quite a few of them shooting glances at Naruto while Ino quickly made her way back to the balcony and made a bee line for her fellow blonde.

Knowing the coming conversation was going to be pretty personal, Naruto moved away from his team and met Ino at the edge of the platform, out of earshot of everyone else. "Ok Naruto, spill," said Ino, managing to keep her voice at a whispered shout, "How the hell were you able to talk to me telepathically? And what's with your chakra? Why did I feel my own increase when I felt your chakra around me?"

Naruto had to fight hard not to chuckle as Ino said all of this at speeds that should be impossible to speak, and all seemingly in one breathe. "In order," he said with a small smirk, "I'm not quite sure how that happened, though maybe Hokage-jiji or your dad will know something about it. My chakra is apparently unique because it is highly Yang oriented, and to be honest I don't know a whole lot about what that implies, another thing to take up with my sensei and the Hokage I suppose. As to your last question, I can say with certainty that I have no idea why your chakra may have increased when exposed to mine. All I planned to accomplish with that stunt was to help give you a second wind and convince you to keep fighting."

"So what you're saying is that you can't give me any clear cut answers, right?" deadpanned Ino causing Naruto to chuckle sheepishly and rub the back of his neck. _'I never noticed before, but he looks really cute when he does that,' _thought the blonde kunoichi before Naruto's voice brought her out of her thoughts.

"Yeah, that's pretty much what I'm saying," he began, "Though I think we should definitely speak to the Hokage and your father about this. Even if they don't know what it is, they could probably give us a better idea of what to expect or what may happen in the future." Nodding in agreement, Ino began to make her way back towards her team with Naruto at her side.

The two blondes approach caught the attention of everyone on the balcony since they were curious as to what the two were talking about. As the two drew closer to their teams, all of the senseis and the Hokage had to stifle gasps at the resemblance of the two together; to another couple they had known. Though they were slightly younger, and they were both blondes, the two genin looked almost exactly like Naruto's parents had. Naruto's spiky blonde hair, sharp facial structure and broad shoulders was such a perfect match for Minato, it was almost unsettling. With the exception of her hair color, Ino could've passed as Kushina's sister when she was younger. Her long, cascading hair, slim athletic body and natural beauty were a fair match for Kushina. Walking together, it was almost like looking into the past for those who had known the two legendary ninja.

"What was that all about?" asked Sakura once Naruto had rejoined his team.

Taking up his position on the wall again, Naruto glanced down to where Ino was also being questioned by her team before answering. "Something happened during the match that effected both Ino and I, to be honest we're not really sure what it was so we plan on speaking to the Hokage and maybe Ino's father to see if they can shed some light on the matter. Until then we need to focus our attention on making sure the three of us make it to the final round." Though they wanted to know more, the other members of team 7 agreed with the blonde and let the subject drop for now. Sasuke however, had one final comment on the matter.

"You know Naruto, if you want to be alone with Ino, all you got to do is ask. No need to go making up excuses like Kakashi-sensei." Naruto shot the dark haired youth a mock scowl while Kakashi and Sakura snickered.

They were pulled from their conversation by the sound of Hayate's voice. "Sakura Haruno," the pink haired kunoichi looked down at the sickly jounin and only then did she notice the last member of the Oto team standing with him, "This is your final chance, report for your match or you will be disqualified." Blushing slightly as everyone looked at her, the young medic-nin nodded and jumped down into the arena. "Now then," said Hayate before coughing a few times, "The sixth match; Sakura Haruno vs. Zaku Abumi, are you both ready?" with two affirmative nods, the proctor raised his arm before bringing it down, "Hajime!"

"This must be my lucky day," said Zaku as he raised his one good arm and aimed it at Sakura, "Your team mate broke my arm, so now I'm gonna break you! Decapitating Airwaves!" Faster than she could have ever hoped to move during the Academy, the medic in training dodged to the right of the attack and moved in to engage her opponent with taijutsu.

Her strategy seemed to work; with only one arm, Zaku's abilities in close quarters combat were greatly diminished. Blocking a sloppy backhand with her right forearm, Sakura ducked inside her opponents guard and delivered a powerful punch to his stomach. Gasping as the wind was knocked out of him; the foreign genin could do nothing as he was pushed back across the floor. Not letting up in her assault, Sakura drew a kunai and threw it at the recovering Zaku. Unfortunately, Zaku recovered faster than she anticipated and managed to deflect her kunai with one of his own. He wasn't, however, able to avoid the following explosion as the paper bomb wrapped around the kunai's handle detonated. The force of the blast sent Zaku crashing into the wall behind him, causing cracks to form from the point of impact accompanied by the sound of several bones snapping.

Hayate stepped forward after that, his hand raised towards Sakura, "That's enough, as the proctor I deem Zaku Abumi unfit to continue. The winner of the match is Sakura Haruno."

Before anyone had a chance to applaud Sakura's victory, cackling came from the downed form of Zaku. Everyone watched as the obviously injured genin pushed himself back into a standing position allowing them to see the crazed look in his eyes. "You think I care about winning some stupid fight? All I want is revenge, and I'll start by killing her! EXTREME DECAPITATING AIRWAVES!" Despite the damage done to his body, Zaku managed to lift both of his arms and force the last bit of his chakra into his jutsu.

"Sasuke!" shouted Naruto as he leapt from the deck, already forming seals for a defensive technique. Sasuke wasn't lax either, before the blonde had finished saying his name, the last loyal Uchiha was already moving to incapacitate the far gone genin. Naruto finished his seals just as he landed next to his female team mate who had her hands clasped in the snake seal.

"Doton: Earth-Style Wall."

"Suiton: Water Encampment Wall," both Naruto and Sakura's cheeks swelled before spitting out a wide fence of water and stream of mud respectively. The mud from Sakura's technique rose into a thick wall of earth that took the brunt of Zaku's most powerful attack. As the wall began to crack in places, the water coming from Naruto formed a second layer of defense that dispersed whatever the earth wall couldn't stop.

While his team mates defended themselves and everyone behind them from the attack, Sasuke made short work of Zaku. Coming in front the right, he knocked the Oto genin back into the wall with a roundhouse kick. Catching him by the throat, Sasuke forced Zaku to look into his Sharingan eyes, trapping him in a genjutsu.

The sound of a throat clearing brought all attention to the Hokage, who had moved to the arena floor in case he was needed. "Excellent work team 7," he said with a smile to the three young genin, "You handled yourselves well in that situation. I only wish your actions hadn't been necessary." Nodding to their leader, the team of genin rejoined their sensei at the Hokage's silent dismissal. The Sandaime's smile disappeared as he turned his gaze upon the Oto team's sensei, who still had a smirk on his face, "As for you, the actions of your student are not tolerated within the walls of Konoha. The match had already been declared over and yet your student still attempted to kill one of our genin. Such actions could easily be seen as a declaration of war, be thankful I do not act upon them." The smirk on Orochimaru's disguised face didn't even falter as he met the Sandaime's gaze before silently walking towards the arena entrance, completely ignoring Zaku's unconscious form. "Take the boy and his team mates to Ibiki," the aging Hokage whispered to seemingly thin air, "Find out everything you can." Unseen by anyone, a cloaked Anbu member followed after the team of medics that were carting Zaku out of the arena.

"I apologize for the display of force and aggression," Sarutobi said towards the three Suna ninja, "But as I said, acts of war such as that cannot be tolerated."

"Of course, Hokage-sama, we take no offense from your actions. You were simply acting in the best interest of your village," said Baki, trying to keep the subtle shifts of lies out of his voice. Truth was he was greatly disturbed by the show of authority and power from the legendary shinobi. The killing intent the old man had released as he addressed the Oto jounin was unsettling, even if they were not the intended target. While it wasn't enough for him to doubt the success of their plans, it made him wonder what exactly victory would cost Sunagakure. If Konoha's kage, a man well into his sixties still had that much power and drive, then how truly powerful was the village he led?

A familiar coughing brought attention back to Hayate, "Now then, with that dealt with we can proceed with the next bout." On the back wall, the names of the remaining participants began to cycle across the screen again. While everyone's attention was on the board, a small spike of chakra across the room alerted Naruto. Turning to the source of the spike, the blonde sensor found himself looking at the Suna team he had met before the exams began, only a certain redhead wasn't with them anymore. Looking down into the arena confirmed that Gaara had used his variant of a shunshin to move to the floor. Even at this distance Naruto could easily see the impatience in the boy's eyes, along with a strong desire to spill blood.

'_Not good,' _thought the Uzumaki Namikaze heir, _'Judging by that look in his eye, if Gaara isn't selected for the next match, he may just end up killing those who are to satiate his bloodlust; and if he is chosen… his opponent won't last two seconds against him. I just hope it's none of…'_

"Gaara no Sabaku and Choji Akimichi, please come down for the seventh match," said Hayate, ending Naruto's thought process as the blonde immediately looked down the platform and saw Choji crouching down behind the rail, as if it would protect him from his new opponent. He may have wanted to help all of his friends reach their full potential, but now was probably one of the few times he was thankful for their inexperience. Choji had always been a kindhearted person, if a little timid at times, so being paired off against the psychotic Suna genin was bound to have an effect on him.

"I-I-I ca-can't f-fight him, he'll kill me!" squeak the Akimichi heir as he tried to hide his wide girth behind a rail post. Shikamaru was standing behind his childhood friend and he couldn't agree more with that statement. Just by looking in his eyes one could tell that Gaara was someone who didn't have much regard for human life.

"Come on Choji," said Asuma as he lent over the rail next to his rotund student, "If you quit without even trying, you'll never gain experience. Besides, if you win, I'll treat you to an all you can eat buffet." Choji's ears perked up at the mention of a buffet, but before he could react the typical Akimichi way, someone else voiced their opinion on the matter.

"That's cruel Asuma, and you know it," the members of team 10 turned to find Naruto standing with his arms crossed and a frown on his face. "You might as well be offering him his last meal in this life time; if he fights Gaara now, he will die, plain and simple." Ino and Shikamaru's eyes widened, realizing that their worry for Choji was soundly based. Asuma however, narrowed his eyes at the blonde genin, refusing to believe his claim.

"Now look whose passing judgment without proper knowledge," he said, his voice holding a low growl to it. Behind Naruto, the other Konoha ninja present looked slightly shocked by the bearded jounin's words. The genin could easily see that Asuma was throwing Naruto's words from earlier back at him, but the jounin and the Hokage saw something deeper. They saw a man with a wounded pride, who wasn't going to let anything else, wound it any more than it already was. With his mind clouded as it was, Asuma was completely unaware of the truth of Naruto's words. "You were right earlier when you said that the other sensei's and I didn't know the depth of yours, Sakura's and Sasuke's skills. The same applies to you; you don't know what Choji is capable of so don't assume to pass such judgment on him."

Naruto's eyes hardened, "You're right," he said, catching Asuma off-guard momentarily, "I don't know what Choji is really capable of, but I know enough about his opponent to pass fair judgment."

"Oh, and what exactly do you know about the boy?" questioned Asuma, sure that Naruto was just trying to make himself seem better. He was proven wrong though as the next sentence that passed the boys lips caused his blood to run cold.

"He is like me."

"Y-you mean… he is a…"

"Yes, someone who has been lost to his inner darkness," cut in Naruto, preventing the Hokage's son from unintentionally violating his father's law.

Ino spoke up before anything else could be said, asking the question all of the young genin were thinking. "What do you mean he's like you Naruto; you two are nothing alike! You're kind hearted, sweet, nice, caring, everything that guys not. I've been taught to read people ever since I can remember, and the only thing I can see from that guy is that he is a mass murdering psychopath! He's a demon in human form Naruto, he's nothing like you!"

"BE QUITE, INO!" the sudden enraged cry from the normally calm blonde startled everyone. But none were more surprised, or more hurt, by the jinchuuriki's cry than Ino. Sure Sasuke had snapped at her and his other fan girls more than once, but the sting she felt in her heart when it came from Naruto hurt her in ways she couldn't explain.

Reigning in his emotions like he had been taught, Naruto noticed that Ino had tears in the corner of her eyes. "I'm sorry Ino," he said, trying to force the memories Ino had brought forth out of his mind, "But you're the one who's wrong. Gaara and I have more in common than you will ever know." Looking to the still crouching Choji, Naruto offered one last piece of advice before moving back towards his worried team, "You are my friend Choji, I do not want to watch you die any more than Shikamaru and Ino do. It's your decision, but remember whatever you choose will effect other's as well."

As he was walking past team 8, Kiba stopped him with a hand on his shoulder, "I don't know how you knew about that guy, but you did the right thing. If Choji had fought him, he would've been killed for sure." The only sign that Naruto had even heard the feral genin was the short nod he gave before continuing on towards his team. Slumping slightly against the wall, the blonde gave his team mates and sensei a weak smirk before closing his eyes and attempting to meditate.

His attempts were halted as a cold voice that had an undertone of madness in it sounded from the arena floor. "Uzumaki," eyes snapping open, hardened sapphire locked with volatile sea foam green, "You stopped me from proving my existence with his blood, so I will prove it with yours." Sand began to flow out of the gourd on the redheads back and move across the ground towards the viewing platform. All of the Konoha jounin tensed, ready to intervene if the need arose again. Across the room Baki was silently cursing his students impulsive actions while Temari kept switching between worry for her little brother and fear of the demon within him taking over.

Naruto however surprised everyone by answering with a voice that was just as cold, "Now is not the time Gaara. We shall have our battle that I can assure you, but it shall be during the finals. I can feel your desire to prove your existence, and what better way to do so, than in front of hundreds of people, watching as you prove yourself, acknowledging who you are." The sand that had begun to climb the wall stopped. It wavered a few times, showing the debate that was waging in Gaara's mind. Finally, it slowly began to retreat back into the gourd Gaara was carrying with the Suna genin sealing it with a cork once all the sand was inside. With one last stare down between the two jinchuuriki, Gaara disappeared in a sand shunshin and reappeared next to his sister.

Letting out a slow sigh, Naruto looked to Hayate, "I apologize for all the delays, Hayate-san, but I believe there are still three matches to be held."

"Right," said the ill jounin as he cast a glance to the Hokage. Receiving a nod, he addressed the assembled teams, "Since Choji Akimichi withdrew from the match, Gaara no Sabaku is the winner. Now we will begin the selection for the eighth match." The names of the six remaining genin flashed across the display screen for a few seconds before finally settling on the next two competitors. "Will Shikamaru Nara and Tenten please come down?"

An audible sigh resonated from the Nara heir, "Troublesome, my match would be the one to be moved up wouldn't it?" he asked before lazily making his way to the arena. Down on the floor, Tenten scowled at the apparent disinterest her so called opponent had for their match. If it wasn't for the fact that the men of the Nara clan were known for their chronic laziness, she may have mistaken Shikamaru's lack of enthusiasm as a veiled sign that he didn't consider her as being worth the effort to fight.

"Go Shikamaru, show them who's boss!" shouted Choji, all traces of his previous fear gone. Next to him, Ino was giving her own support to the third member of team 10.

Hayate stepped forward between the two Konoha genin, silencing the spectators, "The eighth match, are both fighters ready?" A sharp nod from the bun haired kunoichi was followed by another sigh from Shikamaru, causing many of the Konoha-nin present to sweat drop slightly. Shaking his head, the sickly proctor raised his hand before swiping it down and jumping back to a safe distance, "Hajime!"

'_I have no idea what kind of technique she uses, and she most likely knows about mine from Lee. But it's all I got!' _thought the pineapple haired genin as he formed the sign of the rat and extended his shadow toward Tenten, "Shadow Imitation Jutsu." His assumption was correct it seemed as Tenten was already making a tactical retreat before his shadow had even covered half the distance between them. Shikamaru frowned in concentration as he began thinning out his shadow as much as possible to help increase its reach. It was all for naught though because with one last jump backward, Tenten skidded to a halt in front of the arena statue, just out of the shadows range. The almost needle thin shadow wavered for a few moments, evidence of the Nara's attempt to extend it further, before returning back to its owner.

'_So there is a limit to how far that shadow of his can reach,' _thought Tenten as she took note of the distance, _'Ten tiles, I should be fine so long as I maintain that distance.' _"Nice technique you have there, but now that I know its limit, it's pretty much useless to you in this fight." Knowing that if she didn't do something to deter him, he was more than likely going to attempt to close the distance between them and ensnare her with his shadow, the budding weapons mistress reached into her hip pouch and produced a single yellow scroll with pink borders. "Now it's my turn, and I never miss my mark."

"Not good," mumbled Shikamaru before Tenten jumped high into the air, the scroll unfurling and spiraling around her form. Her rotation soon picked up speed, blurring the scroll trailing's into a pink and yellow twister. The next thing he knew was a literal hail of metal flying towards him as Tenten unleashed a barrage of weapons from her scroll. Cursing under his breath the lazy genin rolled to his right to avoid the first wave of weapons only to be forced to jump back lest he be impaled by the second wave. This continued for a few more moments, with Shikamaru barely managing to dodge Tenten's relentless assault.

Finally the assault ended and Shikamaru was given a small respite. Ceasing her spin, the weapons user gracefully landed on her feet across from her fellow genin, a small sea of weapons separating them, not allowing much room for either of the two to maneuver. "You're faster than you look," commented Tenten while reaching into her pouch again, "But now you have no room to dodge. Make this easier on both of us and surrender."

The lazy genius stuffed his hands into his pockets and shifted his weight onto his left leg, completely relaxing his guard. "Yeah, giving up would be better than continuing this troublesome fight," he relented, causing most of the other genin to gape at his laziness while his team and sensei sweat dropped, "But my mom wouldn't let me hear the end of it if I didn't at least try, and she's more troublesome than these exams." Dropping to a knee again, he brought his hands up into his family's signature hand seal, "So I'll just have to win."

"And how exactly do you plan to do that? Your shadow can't reach me at this distance." The smirk that found its way onto Shikamaru's face caused Tenten's eyes to narrow. "What are you smirking about?" Her answer came in the form of a blinding flash of light that forced her to shield her eyes lest she go blind. After a few seconds that seemed to drag on, the light finally dimmed before ceasing all together. Tenten opened her eyes, blinking away the spots in her vision caused by the light. When she could finally see clearly again it was to find Shikamaru with that same smirk on his face. It was then that she noticed that she couldn't move her body!

"Shadow Imitation Jutsu, complete," said Shikamaru as he stood back up and lowered his arms, with Tenten copying his movement.

"H-how did you catch me? I was out of your shadow's reach!"

He tilted his head down to allow his captive to see the floor and understand just how he had managed to catch her. "You may have been out of my shadows usual reach, but I can also use preexisting shadows to help increase its range." Sure enough, the shadow that connected the two together had passed through the shadows cast by the many weapons that littered the floor.

"But how? There is no way you should have been able to thread your shadow through the ones cast by weapons like that normally."

"Your right, normally the shadows cast wouldn't be big or dark enough to use this way, but that's what the flash bombs were for. They temporarily enhanced all of the shadows, as well as slightly increasing the range of my own shadow. All that was left to do was weaving them together and attach it to yours." Reaching into the shuriken holster on his right leg, Shikamaru pulled out a few shuriken and held them at the ready to throw. Unfortunately for Tenten, she didn't have any kind of holster attached to her thighs, so even though she mimicked the Nara heir's movements, she was left unarmed and at his mercy. "I'm not the type to harm women needlessly, so just withdraw and don't force my hand."

The bun haired girl struggled against the shadows hold for a moment, attempting to break free so she could counter. Her efforts were for naught however, as the shadows hold remained firm. Closing her eyes in defeat, she felt her head turn so that she was facing Hayate, "I forfeit." Her words were barely above a whisper, but still clear for all to hear.

Hayate nodded and raised his right arm towards Shikamaru, "Winner of the eighth match; Shikamaru Nara." Since neither competitor was seriously injured, the medical team didn't even bother making an appearance, allowing the two to return to their teams. Guy and Lee immediately set to work on trying to reassure Tenten about her loss and get her mind off of the fight. Shikamaru on the other hand was welcomed back by Ino and Choji's cheering, along with a few strong pats on the back from Asuma.

Naruto smirked as he watched his fellow 'dead last' stumble from the strong blows from his sensei. "I get his strategy, but how the hell did he manage to set off flash bombs effectively while they were still in his pouch?" looking to his pink haired team mate, he found her with a furrowed brow, looking intently down at the arena floor. Beside her, Sasuke was smirking in a way that just screams, 'I know something you don't,' which earned him an occasional glare from the kunoichi.

"Because they weren't in his pouch," Sasuke and Sakura looked over towards Naruto, one with a knowing smirk, the other a look of confusion. "The entire time he was dodging Tenten's attacks, he was dropping a few flash bombs onto the floor. He knew that Tenten would be too focused on him to bother observing the results of her attack close enough to notice a difference. After that, all he had to do was trigger them with a burst of chakra. Isn't that right Shika?" he called down the walkway. Shikamaru gave him a lazy smirk, letting everyone know Naruto had been right in his analysis.

"How the hell did you know he did that? There is no way you should have been able to see all that with Tenten flinging weapons everywhere!" the blonde genin chuckled as Sakura continued to try and pry information from him; he knew that she hated it when others noticed things that she didn't, and she had a tendency to try and force information out of them.

The sound of the screen beeping drew everyone's attention. The moment the members of the 'Rookie Nine' saw who the two combatants were, all noise ceased, replaced by an almost other worldly silence. Their attention shifted to the two who had been chosen, one wearing a look of resigned indifference and the other on the verge of a mental break down.

For a moment, they all hoped that this was just someone's idea of a cruel joke, Sakura and Ino even tried to subtly dispel any genjutsu that have be affecting them. It was all for naught however, as Hayate brought the reality of the situation crashing down on them.

"Naruto Uzumaki, Hinata Hyuuga, please report for the ninth match."

**Some of you probably have a few questions about what I have planned, but just be patient and let things develop as the story goes on. I'll try not to disappoint when the time comes.**

**BSW**


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